There Are Nowadays Professors of Philosophy, but not Philosophers
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Abstract
It is remarkable that the first pages of Walden are dedicated to the critique of man's habitual life. Thoreau ironically described it as a worse punishment than the asceticism (I'ascese) of the Brahmans and the twelve tasks of Hercules. Men lead a senseless life (une vie d'insense). They are in ignorance and error, absorbed by artificial worries and unnecessarily harsh tasks. They are only ma chines, tools of their tools.1 Their existence is only despair or resignation. The reason for men's unhappiness, in the eyes of Thoreau, is that they ignore what is necessary and sufficient for life, that is to say, simply everything for maintaining their vital heat. "The grand necessity, then, for our bodies, is to keep warm, to keep the vital heat in us."2 In fact, as Thoreau will demonstrate, man has need of few things for reaching this result, and above all not luxury. "Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind."3 It suffices to convince ourselves to remember the mode of life of Chinese, Hindu, Persian, and Greek philosophers, poor when it comes to external riches, rich when it comes to internal riches (pauvres pour ce qui est de la richesse exterieure, riches pour ce qui est de la richesse interieure). These examples now are far from us, but Thoreau continues, "There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers."4 That is because for him, "To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, [...] 5 but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically."6 Thoreau