Unsatisfied with words that exist, I hereby present my own: writer-philosopher.
A writer–philosopher straddles the fence between subjective and objective truth. As a philosopher, she seeks to interrogate reality as it is out there in the world. As a writer, she seeks to articulate the experience of being in the world.
In an inclusive enough world, writer and philosopher would each be word enough to describe this pursuit. Doesn’t an investigator of reality owe an exploration of both sides of being? Reality isn’t a jagged disjunct of subjective and objective. That itself is a “philosophical” abstraction.
Yet, I find myself dulled by the possibilities of our current conception of academic philosophy and personal writing. Philosophy no longer connotes a commitment to writing anything readable and writers seem to have excused themselves from the business of pioneering ideas worth thinking about.
It’s time we made a change.
A Naked Admission
The danger of proclaiming yourself a writer-philosopher is to simultaneously commit both crimes. In an elaborate dodge, the writer-philosopher may shrug both the writer’s responsibility to aestheticism and the philosopher’s duty to make a point.
To be honest I coined this phrase for my own purposes. So there is a real danger that it becomes an excuse for mediocre work.
But the risk is worth it because the writer-philosopher represents a unique possibility.
The possibility to tether oneself twice.
Unlike a writer, the writer-philosopher commits to rigor in argument. Unlike a philosopher, he breathes a fidelity to lived experience: we write through experience, we write to experience.
Two Clarifications
First, writing and philosophy are immensely worthwhile pursuits in themselves. It just strikes me that there’s something in the middle that is just as vital— something that doesn’t yet have a name.
Second, I am inventing nothing—nothing except the name.
The most vivid works in human history can be categorized as Writing-Philosophy. Writer-philosophers transcend categories, creating within music, art, mathematics, politics, cross-stich, gymnastics, colonoscopy, and astral magic.
Yet, their diversity of mediums further justifies the need for a uniting identity. Writer-philosopher is a label to help you own your identity as an investigator of reality and being.
I’ll end with this
This is my earnest endeavor to create space to be—in the way any writer creates their place to be in the world. And my attempt in this public definition is to be sincere in my thinking—like any philosopher should be.
But while I wrote this because I needed it, it isn’t just for me.
Everybody has the right to create their place in the world, and to investigate reality sincerely. So, everybody is encouraged to write and philosophize their way into the world—as writer-philosophers, or in roles of their own inventing.
I hope, in the future, all of us will have the opportunity and belief to be a writer-philosopher. The label then, will be synonymous with being human.
Until that time, let us make do with being writer-philosophers.
The generous support of fellow thinkers like you allows me to dream big and create. I’d be honoured to add you to the list.