A few years ago, as my first foray into philosophy as a Real Adult, I attempt to power my way through Deleuze and Guattari’s AntiOedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. It didn’t go particularly well. I think I understood that there was something revolutionary about it, about escaping oppressive hierarchies imposed on us by the Oedipal Triangle, but the lyrical language can be, at times, nearly impossible to follow. I gave up about half-way through.
Last week, though, I went on tirade during a phone call with a friend about the aforementioned pair’s What’s Philosophy, and the juxtaposition of philosophy to aesthetics. To them, philosophy is the aesthetics of concepts. Because I’m entitled to do so, I contributed my interpretation of this notion: that philosophy doesn’t tell us what Is, or Should Be, but instead gives us lenses with which to view what Has, Will, or Could. Philosophy is a quiver of telescopes that we can use to view the world, discourse, existence, &c.; swapping them out according to need, and adding cylinders to the ones we use most in hopes to further their efficacy.