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

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

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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Objects reversed

Objects are treated as posits from experience rather than as causes of experience. Strawson presents the idea as: tableish experiences do not occur because a table is there; the table is there because of the pattern of experiences. > I don’t have tableish experiences because there’s a table in front of me. There’s a table in front of me because I have certain tableish experiences.

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Dispositions reversed

The analysis of powers reverses the order between a property and its manifestation. Fragility does not explain breaking; the counterfactual pattern of breaking if dropped explains fragility. > A thing doesn’t break when dropped because it’s fragile. It’s fragile because it would break if it were dropped.

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Causation reversed

Causation is reduced to regular succession: Bs do not follow As because As cause Bs; rather, As are said to cause Bs because Bs regularly follow As. Strawson lists this as another case where explanatory priority has been inverted. > Bs don’t always follow As because As cause Bs. As cause Bs because Bs always follow As.

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Existence reversed

Existence itself is treated through causal role. Instead of existing things having effects, something is said to exist because it has effects on other things. > I don’t have effects on other things because I exist. I exist because I have effects on other things.

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The wrong way round

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

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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