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There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers," Thoreau wrote in Walden. The complaint is an old one, as old as philosophy itself, which suggests that an impulse to reform philosophy, to make it somehow more "real," is a perennial aspect of the philosophical enterprise—and thus that the claims of reformers need to be taken with a few grains of historical salt. At other times, too, the impulse may not be so much to reform philosophy as to "take it to the people," with the emphasis on that constructive project.
In our time these impulses assume many forms: inside the academy, for example, in the work of Pierre Hadot, whose book Philosophy as a Way of Life has had a powerful influence; outside, in the work of figures such as Christopher Phillips, author of Socrates Café and founder of the Society for Philosophical Inquiry (www.philosopher.org), a roving ambassador who travels throughout the United States promoting philosophical discussion in bookstores and prisons, schools and senior centers. There are also magazines such as Philosophy Now and The Philosophers' Magazine, intended to be accessible to readers with no professional stake in the discipline but with a lively interest in the subject.
Here we offer three such alternative conceptions of philosophy: in Stephen Williams' interview with the philosopher Tom Morris, who forsook the seminar room to address audiences at Merrill Lynch, General Motors, IBM, and other corporate venues; in Paige Hochschild's review of Hadot's book, What Is Ancient Philosophy?; and in Douglas Groothuis' account of Jesus as philosopher. All three shed light on the relationship between philosophy and Christian conviction.
Thomas Victor (Tom) Morris made an exceptional reputation for himself among Christian philosophers as a thinker, lecturer, and writer. He taught philosophy and philosophy of religion in one of the top departments anywhere, the University of Notre Dame, and won several teaching awards and acknowledgements. He was judged Indiana Professor of the year in 1990 and received, along with Michael Jordan, the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. But in 1995, he quit the academic realm and took to traveling within and outside the United States in the role of public philosopher and adviser, lecturing to top businesses and corporations on … well, he shall tell us. His new role has earned him a public reputation, not least through television appearances, and he is director of the Morris Institute for Human Values. His latest book is The Art of Achievement: Mastering the 7 Cs of Success in Business and Life. Stephen Williams, a close friend of Morris in graduate school at Yale in the late Seventies, caught up with him last fall.
Tom, in 1980, you and I parted company. I disappeared to the remoteness of west Wales; you took up a prestigious position in Notre Dame and distinguished yourself remarkably. Then, in the '90s, rumors began to circulate of your lecturing at the request of Merrill Lynch, General Motors, IBM, and the like—and even doing Winnie-the-Pooh commercials for Disney Home Videos. The obvious question is: how the mighty have fallen?
Ha! Still the theologian I know and love. We can never predict where ideas may take us. I think the mighty have fallen because they didn't have the right ideas about their work. Wait—you were talking about the Merrill Lynch people, weren't you? If you meant me, we'll have a jolly good time in this interview after all! I was having the time of my life at Notre Dame, writing up a storm in analytic philosophy of religion, teaching an eighth of the student body in some years with the aid of a small army of teaching assistants, and helping to build the Center for Philosophy of Religion there. I loved every minute of it.
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