Discourse - Excursus - Cosmos

Living philosophy consists of:

• islands of discourse, where the inhabitants of the island cultivate new ideas, concepts, and methods;
• and the ocean of excursus, where students and teachers sail, briefly visiting one island or another to replenish their supplies of food and water.

Every major philosopher has his own marker words with which he marks his territory.

For Hegel it is Absolute Spirit, for Kant the thing-in-itself, for Popper the principle of falsification.

The term “paradigm”, introduced by Kuhn, is a marker of Kuhn’s own discourse. Discourse is similar to a paradigm, but it emphasizes language. A philosopher has no instruments except language. Physicists do.

Thus, discourse is the language of one philosopher, a territory where he and only he sets the rules and meanings.

Excursus is the opposite: a territory where anyone may wander and where one cannot vouch for any concept or any term.

Inside a discourse, one can reason logically, build proofs, and achieve clarity.

In excursus, none of this can be done.

Discourse makes it possible to shorten reasoning, because “we have already discussed all this”. In excursus, one has to begin again every time, because visitors from the street may not be in the topic at all.

Teachers of philosophy lead students through excursus. But only someone who knows a particular discourse as his native language can lead others through that discourse.

I unexpectedly discovered that considering discourse and excursus as a pair is not enough. A third element is needed. For now I call it cosmos; I have not found a better name yet.

To continue the metaphor: discourse is the islands in the ocean, excursus is the rest of the ocean, and cosmos is the land.

Here cosmos means the life of people who are in no way connected with philosophy. The point is that philosophy must influence their lives as well. This is a general principle of culture.

Books should be read not only by writers (discourse) and literary critics (excursus), but also by people busy with completely different things (cosmos): they should read them, buy them, spread them, criticize and praise them, value them.

Without this third factor, an important property of culture in general and philosophy in particular disappears: the ability to move all humanity forward, not only professionals.

When thinking about any topic, I constantly glance at a counter that shows the rating of this topic:

• for cosmos;
• for excursus;
• for my discourse.

What can philosophy offer to cosmos?

Four Sea-Products

1. A worldview.
2. A system of values.
3. Methods of choice at points of choice.
4. Tools of self-knowledge.

This division into four products is not accidental. Later we will understand why.