Philosophy, says Roger Foster, is more about asking questions than finding answers.
Students often show up for Roger Foster’s basic philosophy course with little sense of what philosophy is or what practical purpose it serves. And that is perfectly fine with him.
“I actually like to play on their uncertainty and use it pedagogically,” says Foster, now in his fifth year on BMCC’s Social Science faculty. “One of the most exciting – and important – parts of teaching philosophy is conveying the wonder of asking questions and not quite knowing where you are.”
Foster views philosophy as a skill – “one that improves the more you do it.” And, approached properly, it is rooted in the realities of daily life.
“My students are sometimes surprised that I make no distinction between classical definitions of philosophy and the everyday events they read about in the newspaper or experience firsthand,” he says. “Philosophy isn’t just about sacred texts.”
Practical applications
To be sure, not all of Foster’s students come away from his course more passionate about philosophy than when they began. “Many go on to professional careers, so, what I try to convey is the sense that there is something in the philosophical tradition that speaks to them – that might help them be better writers and clearer thinkers,” he says. “If they leave wanting to know more about some of the issues we’ve raised – and, perhaps, to do some reading on their own, I consider that a success.”
The quest for self-awareness is a dominant theme in Foster’s teaching. “Thinkers from Plato to Freud have all probed the various forces – both internal and external – that define who we are,” he says. “But by and large, we go about our lives unaware of those forces. Making them conscious and bringing them to the surface is a big part of what philosophy is about.”
Foster’s core belief about philosophy could well be summed up in five words: There are no easy answers. It is a credo that is evident in his research into the life and thinking of the German philosopher and musicologist, Theodor Adorno. Foster’s book, Adorno: The Recovery of Experience, will be published within two weeks by SUNY press.
“Adorno was a key figure in the Frankfurt School, a center of neo-Marxist social theory and philosophy in the 1930s,” he says. “Quite frankly, one of the things the first drew me to him was the incomprehensibility of his writings. I was interested in trying to get past that initial sense that there was something happening, even if I wasn’t sure what it was.”
Tom Huhn, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Adorno calls Foster’s book “The most lucid presentation I’ve read of Adorno’s work.”
Beyond language
In point of fact, he says, “reading any of the great philosophers, from Plato to Kierkegaard, you never reach the point where you can say you’re totally comfortable with the concepts – that you know exactly what they’re trying to say. The idea of trying to talk about things that language has difficulty expressing is essential to philosophy –and, for me, to philosophy’s appeal.”
Adorno was as famous for his aloofness as for the impenetrability of his concepts. During a teaching stint at Columbia University, “he was described perfectly by a colleague,” says Foster. “He called Adorno ‘the most foreign man I’ve ever met.’”
