A newspaper philosopher came I

The New York Times has introduced a blog about philosophy -- and who says newspapers are dying?

Of course, as a journalist and pretend philosopher I'm fascinated. And so are at least the 787 people who thus far have commented at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/what-is-a-philosopher/?scp=1&sq=philosophy&st=cse.

Simon Critchley, best known for having the most English name possible without using "Lord" or "Knobblybottom" in his name, starts off with the question, "What is a philosopher?"

And like most philosophers, Critchley has more wind than a thousand head of dairy cows (which are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by the way).

In his first post, Critchley Knobblybottom asks the question: What is a philosopher?

He then goes on to outline the history of the question going back all the way to Thales, considered the first philosopher because he proposed, "All is water." (Important note here: He never tasted my incredibly dry martinis.)

But the answer, like much of philosophy, is less clear in his explanation.

Let me suggest that a philosopher isn't just someone who asks questions. We all do that. Asking questions doesn't make you a philosopher or a cop or a doctor or a journalist.

What would make you a philosopher -- and not one of the other many question-seeking jobs -- is how you go about getting the answer. And I would suggest -- for your approval or disapproval, as my mentor Dr. Richard Behling would have offered -- is that it is a mixture of the empirical and the logical, along with dashes of psychological, sociological, historical and now scientific.

The point of philosophy, it seems to me, is getting to the truth of the question. If the question is, "Why is the sky blue?" we don't spend much time with the esoteric, "What is blue?" Instead, we understand the a priori knowledge and build on it as we have about how the light of the sun refracts through the lens of the Earth's atmosphere. Simple stuff. And yet not, as we're often unlikely to come to easy answers to more difficult and less obvious questions.

Still, I find it exciting that a major American newspaper would begin such a discussion -- which might answer the question, "Who is the newspaper and philosophy dork?" Answer: Look in thy mirror.