Philosophers Wanted
If This Is Not News, what is it? (I will answer that, but it’ll take a while.) And why is its first cover story an article about philosophy? (I can answer that one now.)
Because, in a very real way, This Is Not News is all about philosophy. (That’s right, even the comics section.) Not the dusty, ivory tower image of philosophy you may have developed after previous encounters with the discipline, but philosophy as a way of investigating life, as a way of seeking truth in order to improve our world. From Plato to the present day, philosophers have sought to understand how the universe works so that they, and others, could get along better in that universe. This section of the site will explore the solutions they’ve proposed and try to see what relevance their answers have to life in the twenty-first century.
But again, what is this site? It is a webzine and online community inspired by the works of John Dewey (one of the leading American philosophers of the early twentieth century), particularly Dewey’s 1927 book The Public and Its Problems. Dewey firmly believed that democracy could only thrive if every member of society played an active part in investigating and solving the problems of the present day, that there had to be more to democracy than trudging to a voting booth at pre-approved intervals.
It is a fact of human existence that we are linked to one another; the actions of one person have consequences that affect the lives of many others. What separates humanity from the animals is our ability to use our intelligence to consider those consequences before acting. We imagine how the future will be if we continue on our present course and then change that future by changing our actions in the here and now. Our imperfect knowledge prevents us from ever perfectly forecasting the future, but as we continue to investigate the universe, a gradual process of trial and error helps us make better and better predictions, and therefore lets us control our destinies with greater and greater precision.
Dewey took as his model the scientific community, which is marked by 1) a rigorous empirical investigation of the structures of the universe and 2) the sharing of results for discussion, critique, and further research. When the system works, the creativity and insight of each member of the community is harnessed and amplified by the efforts of others. One scientist may have a brilliant insight or a radical new experiment. Until that insight is tested by others, subjected to a withering yet respectful critique, and duplicated (and perhaps refined) by others, the scientist is not successful. Once the new idea passes through the crucible, it becomes a public resource, which can be used as a basis for future research and as a new tool in shaping our experience.
An ideal democratic community would function in much the same way. Matters of public policy would be decided by an active and engaged populace. Everyone would bring their own insights and talents to bear on the situation, brainstorming and collaborating with their neighbors. Rather than sit idly by and wait for leaders to solve their problems for them, members of such a community would chart their own destiny together.
Why don’t we have such an ideal community today? There are many reasons offered, and we’ll be investigating them here as time passes. Dewey offered one reason, however, that still has not been overcome: in a nutshell, we don’t think things through. We do not spend enough time thinking about the vast number of people who will be affected by our actions; as such, we do not have a solid vision of the future our actions will bring about, and our choices are a blind stabbing in the dark rather than well-informed and rational. A prime reason for this is that technology has increased the power of our actions to affect others – the ripple effect from our choices spreads wider and wider. But technology has not found a way to duplicate the person-to-person interaction that is so vital in helping us visualize the influence our actions have on others. Once, I had only to be concerned about my tribe, my village, my town. Now my choice of clothes might have a direct bearing (however small) on a child laborer that I have never met in a Third World country that I have never seen. In Dewey’s words, we have built a Great Society that has yet to become a Great Community.
This site aims to start changing that. First of all, the This Is Not News team aims to be, on a very small scale, the kind of brainstorming, investigating community that Dewey envisioned. Every issue we’ll feature a variety of articles on a number of topics, each written by one member of the team with feedback from the rest of the group. Then, in the TINN message boards, we’ll keep discussing and dissecting the issues raised. More importantly, we want you, the reader, to be a part of our community as well. The message boards are open to everyone who wants to participate in a spirit of rigorous (but respectful) debate and investigation. We know we don’t have all the answers, and we don’t expect to find them. But we do have an almost infinite supply of questions, and hopefully you can supply us with more.
Perhaps just as importantly, This Is Not News wants to use the technology that has created a Great Society to forge the Great Community. We want you to get to know us as people, and to do that we want to show you not just one or two sides of ourselves, but as much of who we are as we can upload to an FTP server. That’s why in addition to sections on philosophy, history and public policy, we have sections on music, humor and comic books. And this is just the start . . . the subjects in this opening issue are a pretty fair representation of my thoughts and interests, but we’ll be expanding our coverage so that the rest of the team is covered with the same thoroughness.
And that’s why we call the site This Is Not News. Because our goal is for it to cover – for it to be – just about everything else. (Told you it’d take a while.) So click a link and let’s get started . . . there’s work to be done.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.