DECEMBER 14, 2017 // 3
SCRATCHPAD
Better living through philosophy
By ERICK BENGEL
COAST WEEKEND
E
arlier this month, I
reconnected with Pro-
fessor Prakash Chenjeri,
the chair of Southern Oregon
University’s philosophy
program who, along with
chaplain and author Fred
Grewe, led a community talk
at the Astoria Library about
what makes life meaningful.
It’s been nearly 10 years
since my last class with Chen-
jeri, and I told him before the
event that although I’d contin-
coast
ued studying undergrad-level
philosophy in Portland, I had
ultimately gone into journal-
ism.
I may have broken the
news somewhat ruefully, for
there was a time when I gave
serious thought to pursuing
philosophy as a grad student,
when the most important
vocation I could imagine
involved dismantling dogmas,
clarifying concepts and call-
ing bull---- from a lectern.
Chenjeri reminded me,
though, of something he
tells his students: Having a
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ERICK BENGEL
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REBECCA HERREN
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14
background in philosophy can
help you in almost any field.
Whatever career you choose,
whatever life you want to live,
you benefit from knowing
how to unpack ideas, draw
distinctions and unearth
buried assumptions, and
from having the wisdom and
humility to recognize when to
change your mind.
Philosophy, you see, is not
simply a body of knowledge
but a skill, a practice, an
orientation.
In my 20s, the philos-
ophy classes I enrolled in
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— including the nine I took
with Chenjeri — offered a
refuge of reason from an
unruly, angst-addled inner
world. Some of my fondest
memories are of daily walks
to campus, a backpack full
of textbooks and course
readings, en route to discuss-
ing the philosophies of mind
and language, science and
religion, political theory and
critical thinking, logic and
ethics.
These dialogues felt vital,
urgent and refreshing, as if
we had, for an hour or two,
stepped into a stream of
conversation that had been
flowing for millennia, running
through topics that touched
everything worth caring
about. Absorbing a lesson was
like installing the latest anti-
virus software on my brain, a
way of fortifying my mental
defenses against suspicious
inputs, of quality controlling
my convictions.
I steadily ditched many
seductive beliefs I now find
idiotic and embarrassing —
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Continued on Page 19
Features Editor Erick Bengel