As we begin the process of primaries and caucuses leading up to the November election it might be a good time to seek out some advice for evaluating presidential candidates.  What, if anything, of practical value can we learn from the great philosophers of the past that might shed light on this?  Let's examine a few of them and see.

Socrates:  Ask the right question.  Socrates was fond of asking such questions as "What is piety?" What is beauty?" "What is truth?'  While the questions seem esoteric and abstract Socrates always asked them with an eye towards arriving at clarity and this clarity has practical value.  But, what can we do with the socratic method if we are not asking these kinds of questions?  Well, for one, we can be mindful of the lack of clarity in our own lives and workplaces and begin asking the same kinds of questions.  Whenever you hear the latest buzzword or technical bit of jargon ask the "What is" question and see what happens.  As likely as not some confusion will be revealed even by those using the word.  At the the very least, this indicates a lack of clarity and a need for further questioning.

Rene Descartes:  Doubt and ask for evidence.  Most famous for stating "I think, therefore, I am," Rene Descartes' philosophy forms the basis of much of our unexamined world view today.  But, like Socrates, it is his method of doing philosophy that yields the most practical benefit to us.  In particular, Descartes method of doubt and deduction.  First, if something seems unsubstantiated, doubt it!  Ask for the evidence which validates the claim.  And keep asking for evidence until you find some or find that none exists.  At that point, you have a decision to make.  Is the claim worth believing even in the absence of evidence or should it be given up in favor of a more substantiated claim?  

David Hume:  Proportion your belief to the evidence.  The British empiricist famous for awakening philosophers like Immanuel Kant from their "dogmatic slumber" can do the same for us today with his admonition to proportion our belief to the available evidence.  In this respect, he picks up right where Descartes leaves off and reinforces the same valuable lesson.  Don't let people simply make claims without also demanding that they validate these claims.  Think about how often a policy is put in place without first examining the evidence for and against it.  This happens quite often in the workplace, the state house, and the school house.  

Immanuel Kant: Pay attention to how you see things not simply what you see. Having awoke from his "dogmatic slumber," Immanuel Kant went on to produce a critical philosophy that has had a major influence on psychology and our understanding of how perception works.  What Kant realized was that we don't immediately perceive the world around us as it really is, but rather as our mind organizes it.  What practical applications can we make of this insight?  We can remember to be on guard against the biases that we bring to any situation by remembering that we see things not as they really are but as we believe they are. 

Conclusion:  Philosophers can provide good guidance for picking a presidential candidate because they focus on asking the right questions and demanding evidence to validate claims.  Philosophy also provides a useful method for evaluating the claims made by those seeking public office and that method is logic.  In my next post I will outline some specific insights from logic that can help clarify the process of evaluating claims.   

 


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