“I participated in a session of Deep Philosophy, but I did not gain any new knowledge!”
“Nevertheless, was the philosophizing itself significant?”
Traditionally, philosophers philosophize in order produce a result – a new theory, a new idea. At the end of their investigation, philosophers write their theory in a book, and now it is a “finished product.” It is displayed in a bookstore, and it can be passed from one person to another.
But must every philosophizing produce a “product”? Must a philosophical activity result in a new theory in order to be meaningful?
Not everything that is valuable produces a product. When you go a lecture, you hope to return home with new knowledge. But this is not the case with music or theater. When you go to a concert or a play, you don’t expect to come back home with a “product,” like a new piece of knowledge, or a new opinion. During the performance you listen attentively moment by moment, and the experience may be deeply significant, yet when the lights are turned on, no product remains in your possession. You go home empty-handed, and yet enriched. Music or theater is meaningful not because of what it produces, but because of what it is during the performance.
We may call these “performative activities.” And likewise, there is also PERFORMATIVE PHILOSOPHY: It is a philosophical activity that is meaningful while it happens, not because of any end-result. The philosophical moment itself is significant, even though it does not produce any new idea to take home with you.
How come Deep Philosophy does not produce a product – a new theory, an idea, a piece of knowledge?
Because, like in the case of music, in a Deep Philosophy session you “see” something which you cannot capture in statements and theories. Theories or ideas are “things” you can take home with you. But the precious philosophical understandings which you experience during the session cannot be preserved in sentences. They cannot be preserved at all – they live only in the moment.
Deep Philosophy gives you glimpses of profound understandings. For a moment, you discern fundamental meanings – or voices – of human reality. Afterwards, after the session has ended, you can describe the experience vaguely and generally, as you can describe any experience, but you cannot capture it and preserve it.