Why philosophy is crucially needed today in the age of the Coronavirus
When most young adults hear and think of philosophy today — especially in the West — what usually comes to mind is a specific type of academic discipline that exhaustively engages in the mental exercise of thinking, usually pondering the “meaning of it all” or “what is my place in the world”, but at the end of the day serves no real practical purpose or value. What is unfortunate about this common viewpoint regarding philosophy is not that it is narrow-minded, but rather that it is true to a certain extent. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, one of the most important philosophers in history and a leading figure in the German philosophical tradition known as German Idealism, explained that one of the main goals of philosophy is not to acquire wisdom as such, but to actually guide an individual in their own pursuit of attaining a meaningful life that served a purpose — or as the cliché goes, “a life worth living” (with dignity). Hegel was in fact the last great philosopher to undertake the pursuit of explaining the meaning of it all, to actually realize one of the basic tasks of the Philosopher. Through his conceptions about life, one would theoretically develop that meaningful life to the degree that it could be viewed as a kind of destiny, one that directs the individual down the path to the inner-self as opposed to a dead end or full halt.
Philosophy is exponentially greater than just this one undertaking to answer one of the great inquiries of mankind. To go over all its activities would be unending since they cover all features of life (reality). Instead, we can look at one aspect philosophy provides vital insight into. With the medicalization of modern societies and the development of Psychology, many common powerful emotions like anxiety are usually alleviated through medical treatments (pills, psychiatrists, programs), yet many forms of mental anxiety cannot simply be “fixed” or “treated” through these methods, and this is where philosophy intervenes. What happens when a person experiences intense emotions towards the fear of nothingness (termed Oudenophobia), death, meaningless? How can pills that are advertised to treat familiar kinds of stress possibly cure such profound emotional experiences? Anxiety is not some arbitrary mood that affects people randomly and commonly, rather, it is a fundamental basis for understanding what it means to be human. So to remove anxiety from humanity is to remove the ‘self’ from humanity as well (which Kierkegaard believed but for despair rather). The point is these attributes are inherent to the Self, not emotional occurrences or symptoms that people can try and heal; attempting to do so with anxiety or despair is like asking to heal the limited self one may possess. To try and attain such a goal is preposterous since these fundamental structures have helped progress human history. We can apply this to death itself which many people fear, but why? To embrace and accept death can be a liberating experience for an individual. Emotions therein have a philosophical character to it.
So how can we put philosophy into practice? Karl Marx, the famous social theorist and philosopher who was known for his development of Marxism, made a famous critique towards philosophers throughout history in their examinations of it, as opposed to affecting real change. His famous phrase about this stance is known as Thesis 11: “Philosophers have so far interpreted the world. The point, however, is to change it” (1846). Yes, philosophers tend to produce abstract (theoretical) ideas and thoughts which people may find hard to apply in their life. But before addressing Marx, there are some important ways a person can incorporate philosophical teachings; for instance, one can use it to determine their conduct, that of their general temperament in terms of reacting to their external stimuli or their method of thinking; philosophical ideas can also be used to dictate how one view’s their own ethics, and what is more philosophical than explaining, understanding, and prescribing good and bad behavior for society? Which dimension should the philosopher choose to write about then, metaphysics or pragmatic ideas in which people can alter pre-existing conditions in their own reality? Well the philosopher can simply execute both needs: address the major themes of humanity via analyzing societies, and offering solutions about how people can change their current conditions. These undertakings are realized by the philosopher with eternal standards, required basis for theories or arguments, and all-encompassing principles for objective considerations, necessities, and essentialities — this is where Marx’s philosophy fell short as he rejected all these conditions of philosophy and instead situated importance on historical context (excluding impartial analysis facilitated through absolute truths or value schemes, applying instead Historicism).
Now can one apply philosophy to a particular philosopher? Well of course! A famous philosopher who was active during the 20th century was Theodor Adorno, who helped found the German school of critical philosophy known as the Frankfurt School. He explained that when examining a important philosopher, the question that should be asked is not if their theories are applicable today or what their ideas can teach people today; rather, what is the current era to that philosopher, i.e. how would the modern time period appear to that philosopher’s conceptions. Taking the example of communism: instead of inquiring if its practices and ideals can be applied politically or if they are relevant today ( and can it still be utilized as a method of examining capitalism), one should ask how the present social order and its catastrophes appear from the viewpoint of communism. Here we have the dialectics between the past and present: those who constantly create new notions in order to better comprehend modern day society, that of Risk/postindustrial/postmodern society to which they fail to realize what is genuinely new in modern day society. The only way to understand what’s ’new in the new’ — modern era — is by examining the events of today through the perspective of what was immortal in the past. If, like the French Marxist philosopher Alain Badiou says, that communism is an eternal idea, it is not eternal in the sense of being a constellation of theoretical features that can be employed to any event, but rather in the understanding that it has the possibility to be reconfigured in every new epoch. To be loyal to the eternal idea of communism is to adhere to the pursuit in the direction of radical emancipation which has been preserved since the beginning of history (even back in the age of Antiquity). In order to persist and maintain this eternal universal idea of Communism, it has to be readjusted for each new time period.
But what do we do with philosophy when major historical events occur? People tend to disregard philosophy , the arts and psychoanalysis when there are major events going on such as an economic crisis or terrorist attacks, or the current global pandemic. On the contrary however, its use is more pertinent than ever during these significant events. With the current age of the coronavirus, how the hell could philosophy assist us? The pandemic collapsed social, economic, political relations, mental and physical health, healthcare, and was itself a partial consequence of the ecological crises caused by global capitalism. But there is another dimension it disturbed and can only be explained by philosophy: it harmed humanity’s understanding and experience of Normality — the everyday experiences of people that constitute their reality. The pandemic not only revealed an array of existing calamities (global poverty) and created new ones (health crisis), but also caused a severe transcendental-ontological crisis; a crucial domain in philosophy. Under the pandemic, states worldwide have instituted newfound measures of isolation and social distancing, and the result of this is that the general understanding of humanity is disintegrating. This explains why a large proportion of people do not like wearing a mask or socially distancing themselves because they believe they are being treated like animals; that they are no longer human. Take the case of the US south: many people there oppose wearing masks not because it’s a communist or Chinese plot, but rather obedience to all these rules deprives them of their dignity and personal liberties. They claim that wearing the mask makes them feel like some kind of restrained animal. What this can illustrate is how a crisis like Covid-19 can make ordinary people engage in critical thinking even if it is just a little bit. One almost in a sense can become a “philosopher” as they are essentially asking themselves what does it mean as a human to have freedom and dignity, to redefine oneself. To them, mistakenly, social distancing and the mask represent — in their own philosophical view — a violation of their understanding of dignity and freedom.
Given these existential factors, the philosopher is crucial today in interpreting the pandemic. The methods in which the virus is handled ultimately concerns people’s general attitude toward human life itself. Does one go the libertarian route (mask violates personal freedom), or the full statist route of authoritarianism? Should people and countries attempt to return back to the prior orientations of life, or accept the inevitable truth that the pandemic is an indicator of a new time period in humanity? These decisions do not solely relate to mental health issues such as divergent medical perspectives: it is also a metaphysical decision since it involves people’s relations to reality itself. Whatever choices are made during the pandemic which will shape society post-coronavirus will ultimately rely on a specific vision of what humans are, i.e. a particular perception of humanity and its future courses of action. And this vision requires in some way that everyone becomes philosophers in their own right.
I concur with the brilliant Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek that the state of affairs — once the coronavirus is finally eradicated — will not return to prior normality, i.e. the status quo of global capitalism. The comprehension of normalcy after the pandemic will be dramatically different from the previous form. People will be much more aware of the fragility of life, changing behaviors and thoughts to life itself — our species as just another on earth exposed to grave disasters. Finally, with philosophical engagement comes the component of critical thinking which allows one to ruminate dangerously and courageously while perpetually gaining new knowledge along the way. If this occurs, a true philosophical revolution will transpire akin to the Enlightenment.
