A philosopher explores the many dimensions of a beguilingly simple
question.
Why did triceratops have horns? Why did World War I occur? Why does
Romeo love Juliet? And, most importantly, why ask why? Through an
analysis of these questions and others, philosopher Philippe Huneman
describes the different meanings of "why," and how those meanings can,
and should (or should not), be conflated.
As Huneman outlines, there are three basic meanings of why: the cause of
an event, the reason of a belief, and the reason why I do what I do (the
purpose). Each of these meanings, in turn, impacts how we approach
knowledge in a wide array of disciplines: science, history, psychology,
and metaphysics. Exhibiting a rare combination of conversational ease
and intellectual rigor, Huneman teases out the hidden dimensions of
questions as seemingly simple as "Why did Mickey Mouse open the
refrigerator?" or as seemingly unanswerable as "Why am I me?" In doing
so, he provides an extraordinary tour of canonical and contemporary
philosophical thought, from Plato and Aristotle, through Descartes and
Spinoza, to Elizabeth Anscombe and Ruth Millikan, and beyond.
Of course, no proper reckoning with the question "why?" can afford not
to acknowledge its limits, which are the limits, and the ends, of reason
itself. Huneman thus concludes with a provocative elaboration of what
Kant called the "natural need for metaphysics," the unallayed instinct
we have to ask the question even when we know there can be no
unequivocal answer.
