The Depth(s) of the Twentieth Century — Galen Strawson

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The Depth(s) of the Twentieth Century

Strawson presents a compact indictment of a mid-to-late twentieth-century philosophical habit: reversing what he takes to be the natural explanatory order. Across desire, belief, meaning, emotion, consciousness, objects, powers, causation, and existence, he was taught that the outward, behavioural, dispositional, or experiential pattern explains the apparently prior inner or metaphysical fact. He thinks these reversals are the wrong way round. > It seemed to me that all these claims were the wrong way round. > I still think they’re all the wrong way round, but I feel a little less insecure.

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Philosophical atmosphere

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Strawson frames the list autobiographically: he took up philosophy in 1972 and encountered a family of claims presented as the sophisticated view of central topics. The joke of the title is that these were supposed to be philosophical depths, but to him they often looked like inversions. > I took up philosophy in 1972, and this... is what I was given to understand.

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General form of inversion

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The repeated structure is: not X explains Y, but Y explains X. Wanting is explained by trying; belief by behaviour; meaning by correct use; anger by expression; consciousness by observable dispositions. Strawson’s target is this broad explanatory style rather than one isolated doctrine.

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Desire reversed

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The first example reverses the intuitive order between wanting and action. Instead of trying to get something because one wants it, the behaviour or disposition to pursue it is treated as what constitutes wanting. > I don’t try to get something because I want it. I want it because I try to get it.

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Belief reversed

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Belief receives the same treatment. Instead of belief explaining action on information, acting or being disposed to act is treated as the basis for saying one believes. > I don’t act on some information because I believe it to be true. I believe it to be true because I act on it, or am disposed to.

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Meaning reversed

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The account of meaning and understanding is similarly use-first. Strawson reports being told not that correct use follows from understanding, but that understanding is constituted by correct use. > I don’t use a word correctly because I know what it means. I know what it means because I use it correctly.

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Emotion reversed

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Feelings and emotions are also treated outwardly or dispositionally: anger does not explain the expression of anger; expression or inclination to express is treated as what makes anger attribution correct. > I don’t show anger... because I’m angry... I’m angry because I show anger.

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Consciousness reversed

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For consciousness, the reversal is especially stark. Strawson contrasts the experiential idea that there is something it is like to be a subject with the behaviourist or dispositional criterion for consciousness attribution. > I’m not rightly said to be conscious because there is something it is like to be me... I’m rightly said to be conscious because I behave... in certain ways, or am disposed to.

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The wrong way round

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The main judgment is blunt: across all these domains, Strawson thinks the explanatory order should not be reversed. Desire, belief, understanding, consciousness, objects, powers, causes, and existence are not made by their behavioural or experiential shadows. > I still think they’re all the wrong way round.

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Tentative improvement

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The final sentence is dryly hopeful. Perhaps the twenty-first century is recovering somewhat from these reversals, but only slightly. The note ends with philosophical irony rather than a full argument. > Perhaps things are looking up a little—but only a little—in the 21st century.

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Objects reversed

Insecurity before orthodoxy

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