I certainly hope so. Among my many callings is to teach classes in philosophy. This semester I am teaching Introduction to Ethics, leading my students in understanding the thought of Socrates, John Stuart Mill, Camus and more. Why would I do that if I thought there was no value in it?
It is, however, precisely in answering that question that we run into the realm of philosophy. When I was in a graduate program at Ole Miss years ago, studying English, I ran into philosophy on just this question. One professor, stuck in the mire of post-modernism, told us students, “A laundry list is as much literature as Shakespeare.” My response was less outrage at such folly, more pity for the man. He was essentially confessing that he was devoting his life to the study of laundry lists. How, I wondered, could he get out of bed each morning with such a paltry reason for being?
It was Tertullian who first asked, “What hath Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ Despite my calling, I concur with his assessment. His point was rather simple- that true lovers of wisdom know where to find it, in the Word of God, not in the fruitless thoughts of men. I do not teach philosophy as part of a greater search for higher truth. Rather I teach it to expose error. Not just the error of the philosophers we consider, but the error in all of us who have been influenced by philosophers.
Contra John Locke we do not enter this world as tabula rasa, blank slates on which information is recorded. Rather we enter the world with hearts and minds caught in the grip of sin. We, Paul tells us, know the truth, but suppress that truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1). Not content with erasing what we know, we replace it with what we want to believe, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, exchanging the truth for a lie.
The study of philosophy is the study of those lies. Oh it’s true enough that even the blind squirrels that philosophers are, find a nut every now and again. Yesterday I was praising Plato’s notion of the Forms, the Ideal Realm as a not-too-bad approximation of how the mind of God might relate to reality. But Plato in coming up with that idea wasn’t searching for the living God, but fleeing from Him. And through his influence over the centuries he has taught billions to do the same.
In, however, seeking to understand the structure, the appeal and the trajectory of those lies we are better able to see how they have shaped our own thinking. We learn better how to tear down strongholds, every lofty idea that exalts itself against Christ. We become more faithful soldiers of our King, and by His grace, set to flight those enemies that have become entrenched in our own thinking. Studying philosophy as a substitute for seeking the wisdom of God is pure folly. Studying philosophy as seeking the folly of the world that we might better hear and heed the Master’s voice is pure wisdom.