Philosophy for Everyday Life

Author: Finn Janning
Year: 2015 (Journal of Philosophy of Life 5(1))
Source type: article
Raw file: raw/articles/janning-2015-philosophy-for-everyday-life.md

Summary

A "practical philosophy" essay that asks how philosophy can contribute to everyday living. Drawing on Deleuze, Serres, and secular mindfulness, Janning proposes a "philosophy of the saucepan" — a philosophy of taste, awareness, and becoming that helps us "transform our images of thought" and relate to life without clinging to moral ideals, norms, or representations. Against living "as an imitation of a moral model," it advocates "a form of life that is philosophical": open, relational, empathetic, and attentive to what is "in the midst of becoming."

Key Claims

• A practical philosophy of everyday life: "It is a movement from thinking about life to letting thought be thought by life"; "a philosophy for everyday life is an investigation of taste" — "taste is a question of becoming ... always in the midst of being formed."
• Against moral maps and ideals: "We live our life as an imitation of a moral model," while "the map precedes the territory" (Baudrillard); "we have lost contact with life because we follow ideas or images of how life should be." "Morality is a weakness of mind" (Rimbaud) — labeling and judging reduce "our openness and exposure to an event."
• Life as becoming / immanence: "reality is a social construction" is rejected; "life is changing. It is impermanent and fluctuates"; the virtual "is fully real in so far as it is virtual," a potential to be actualized. Desire is immanent production, not lack ("Deleuze and Guattari: 'everything is desire'"); "The traditional logic ... forces us to choose between desire as either production or acquisition."
• Awareness and mindfulness: cultivating awareness and attention is "an ordinary human quality"; "taste" means exposing oneself, accepting vulnerability, "letting go of one's previous experiences"; philosophy as "an ethical approach to life," becoming "worthy of what happens" (Deleuze's ethics). "A pause is rather to follow the flow of life itself" (Byung-Chul Han).
• Against the herd and best practice: following the herd, or the niche, "has nothing to do with good taste"; "best practice becomes best practice because we neglect many other ways of practicing"; "Every human being is obliged to create his or her own taste."

Connections

Concepts: Everyday Life · Consumerism · Ideology
Authors: Finn Janning
Debates: (theory of the everyday)
Related source notes: The Politics and Potential of Everyday Life (Colebrook) · The Invention of Everyday Life (Felski)

Direct Quotes

"A philosophy for everyday life is an investigation of taste."

"We live our life as an imitation of a moral model."

"[T]he map precedes the territory." (Baudrillard, as adapted)

"The traditional logic ... forces us to choose between desire as either production or acquisition." (on desire as lack vs. production)

Open Questions

• Does this individualist, immanent "philosophy of taste/become" offer a political counterpoint to consumer capitalism, or does its rejection of all norms and ideals risk collapsing into the very relativism it critiques (cf. Foster's pluralism-as-alibi)?