How Philosophers Could Save the World

The alternative to realism sketched in this book proposes a way of thinking in which ‘things’ are replaced with ‘events’. Objects and entities are not inert things lurching from moment to moment. They are events deemed important enough or, like hurricanes, lively enough, to warrant naming for future reference. I know these sketches will not convince anyone that the world is not an actual place full of actual things, but I think I can persuade readers to take an alternative account for a test drive. In this rendition, events have pride of place. Notions of things and entities are figures of speech and computational aids like Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) on personal computers. If the world is an event, it is as young right now as it ever was. You and I share in this vivaciousness. We emerge out of, then subside into, what is going on. I do not mean this literally. You and I emerge into one another’s awareness, and then talk the world into existence. This ‘understanding reboot’ would have secular benefits. Political and economic problems would be seen as rising from from below rather than trickling down from Hitlers, Kim Jong-uns and Donald Trumps. People would see themselves as conduits through which profits are extracted and mischief flows. They would see why understandings and values are important and how they work.