Philosophy for dummies

When do we stop being ignorant? Does money buy happiness? And are we close to the end of the world? A nice collection proposes to tackle with humor, and above all with philosophy, around thirty big and existential questions in texts, in images, even in memes.

Good news: it reads itself. Reflect on the world to die less cavernous, published this week for “14 to 144 year olds” by Editions de La Bagnole, certainly cites Socrates, Plato or Nietzsche, in short texts which are in fact dialogues (which sometimes have to be read aside, or straight up). ‘towards). But the collection, beautifully illustrated, also draws cheerfully from popular culture, with images of Harry Potter here, or Star Wars there. Better: a quantity of memes, visuals that we do not spontaneously associate with the discipline, are skillfully used here to highlight a new avenue, a blind spot, in short, a flaw, and obviously to laugh about it.

And we laugh a lot.

Great reading, then, to get started with philosophy, as fun as it is demanding, it should be noted. This is the less good news: if you are looking to know how to make good choices in life or whether to save the world, you will obviously not find great answers here: rather a few honest proposals, a lot of perspective and above all, lots of new questions.

No certainties on the horizon. And that is obviously the goal, confirms the author of the collection, Louis Dugal, philosophy professor converted into a success advisor at Rosemont college. “This is not a book of truths. […] It’s a philosophical guide in which you are the hero,” he summarizes, in an interview as entertaining and laborious as this reading, ultimately. Know this: interviewing a philosopher is a special exercise, from which you come away with more questions than answers.

These short texts, or “philosophical chronicles”, collected here were first published in the magazine Curium. Note that the questions mostly come from young readers. “Why am I jealous? », illustrates the author, to explain his approach. From a philosophical point of view, “if a teenager asks the question,” he says, “you have to say something.” But the response must not be an end in itself.” That’s not all: “You must be honest, you must respect knowledge, but your response must be aware of its own limitations. » In short, the reader (teenager or not, in fact) must not say to himself: “OK that’s it, I understood everything. ” Completely the opposite. Reader friends, be warned.

At times, it’s downright infuriating: we feel like we’re going in circles, wondering if we can stop progress or why we should doubt, after all. Since each reflection often leads to another question, and so on. To paraphrase Socrates (once is not customary!), we close this little collection by finally telling ourselves that we know very little about it.

“Doing philosophy is a humiliating exercise,” confirms Louis Dugal. Because if you’re asking the question, it’s because you don’t know the answer. You have to accept that you don’t know. And that a question is better than any answer. »

Ultimately, in addition to offering several avenues for reflection on the wide variety of questions asked (ranging from family to the climate crisis through death or good grades at school), Louis Dugal hopes that his readers will pose his book with a “Good first impression of philosophy,” he says. Let them say to themselves: “Plato? He was funny!” […] I want to make philosophy friendly! » Let it be said: despite their airs of wise old men and their great convoluted speeches, philosophers were ultimately only “people who asked themselves questions and tried to answer them”…

Thinking to die less clumsy, 35 philosophical questions to ponder

Louis Dugal

The car

140 pages