Assistant Professor of Philosophy Avner Baz yesterday evening discussed the discontinuity between philosophy and the real world and the answers provided in each area.
Baz explained that there is a gap between how academics deal with questions in the classroom and in the real world.
"There is a discontinuity between what [philosophers] do in theoretical examples and what they do in everyday life," Baz said in his lecture.
The problem with philosophy versus reality, Baz said, is that in philosophy people expect there to be a right answer when in real life, there hardly ever is.
"The theoretical distortion happens not at the level of what is the correct answer but at the level of the assumption that there is a correct answer," he said.
Baz went on to discuss how arguments about the right answer are brought up not only by philosophers but also by nearly every observable group of people whether grouped by social data or by geographical boundaries.
Baz was speaking in Brown and Brew at the Tufts Community Union Senate-sponsored After Hours, an informal conversation series featuring lectures and question-and-answer sessions aimed at promoting intellectual life on campus.
Last evening's event was titled "Philosophical Intuition and Therapy," and Baz spent the lecture portion of the event explaining the problems inherent in answering the questions posed by philosophers.
Baz explained that questions themselves are pointed toward answers that people are expected to give.
"What we trade when we give our answers to the theory's question is our concepts, and our concepts are what [guide] us to our answers when we talk about the question outside of philosophy," Baz said.
According to Baz, the larger question is that of language. He contends that whenever people are asked to answer a question, they are immediately asked to give themselves over to a whole series of assumptions about the power of language.
To illustrate his point about the problems inherent in philosophical questions, Baz handed out a case study, commonly used in philosophy classes. He then proceeded to describe the study not just as an analysis of the participants mentioned in the study but also from the standpoint of the author.
The lecture turned largely into a question-and-answer session about halfway through, at which point students began to question Baz's assessment of philosophy.
Among the questions asked was how one finds an absolute truth if all that is observable are relative truths. Baz answered that this was at the crux of his argument.
"[Philosophers] all assume that knowledge requires truth," he said. "So when they give their examples they always assure such and such because they want to eliminate the doubt that it is truth. They give you assurance that in earthly matters, you just don't know."
Baz did provide one final solution to the problem of philosophical queries.
"The proper way [to answer questions] would be to not seek to apply concepts but to remind ourselves what actually applies in the in the actual and imagined part of the world," he said. "That is how we are going to learn about our concepts. That's how philosophical difficulties will get resolved."
Junior Tomas Valdes found the lecture enlightening despite his inexperience with philosophy.
"As someone who hasn't taken philosophy courses before, it was interesting to have a discussion about experimental philosophy, because it's something I wouldn't have been exposed to in the classroom," he said.
Freshman Yulia Korovikov found the discussion especially interesting in light of the start of spring break.
"It was a great way to start spring break and have time to think about something that definitely doesn't get enough recognition," she said.
