Suppose AI just published in the Philosophical Review. What does this mean for the future of our field?
Nothing.
In late August 2022, a generative AI called ‘Midjourney’ won an art competition. Furor rapidly spread with many people left wondering what this means for artists. If AI can create art cheaper and quicker than artists, will artists lose their jobs? Fast forward 8 months and these concerns were not unfounded. The publishing house Bloomsbury has used AI to make a book cover and Marvel has used AI to craft the entire opening sequence of ‘Secret Invasion’ amidst an Artists and Writers strike (WAG), causing much backlash.
Philosophers console themselves that at least for the time being, generative AI cannot write philosophical essays. But we all know it’s only a matter of time. So let’s panic. Because we are only safe for a very small window of time. At least many of my friends think so. Suppose their nightmare comes true. Here’s why we still shouldn’t panic.
It is all too easy to see publishing as the eventual goal of our work. But that’d be to miss the point entirely. Surely we’ve been telling our loved ones no less all our lives, who, upon learning of our choice to study philosophy, worryingly asked: “What are you going to do with that?” But perhaps we have lost sight of the point. And I want to remind us of it.
We study philosophy to flourish, that is, to develop and exercise capabilities that encompass the full realization of humanity’s innate potentials. Ancients described such capabilities as virtues and thought that developing and exercising them is of inherent value. Because just as an acorn flourishes when it realizes its full potential to become an oak tree, we humans flourish by realizing our innate potentials. And that has nothing to do with what AI can or cannot do.
Aristotle regarded the best life as one of philosophy because he thought that the capacity to reason is what makes us distinctly human, and because philosophy is how we develop and exercise that capacity. Turns out he was wrong and the capacity to reason is not unique to humans. But he was surely also wrong in thinking that what makes us human is what other organisms—natural or artificial—couldn’t do or be. This is a view that many still share. But it is also utterly false. Think about it. Does the acorn not reach for the sky because the same could be done by a plane (pun intended)? And if computers come to reason, does that make a life of philosophy any worse, given philosophy still is—and Aristotle was dead right about this—how we develop and exercise our capacity to reason?
Obviously, studying philosophy teaches us argumentative virtues, that is, it helps us develop our capacity to dissect, construct, and criticize elaborate arguments. But it also helps us develop epistemic, social, and even moral virtues.
Philosophical debate helps us reconsider, and sometimes revise, our deeply held convictions. This teaches us intellectual and moral humility. And if we don’t learn humility, at the very least we learn intellectual and moral tolerance. Because even if we don’t end up revising any of our views, we often come to understand why the views of others are also reasonable and merit respect, even though they disagree with us. And we gain epistemic virtue every time we question what is true and what is not, what is knowledge, what is understanding, and whether we have it. Epistemic virtues are of course partly instrumental. It’s useful to know what’s true and what’s not. But this form of knowledge, and more importantly, the capacity to acquire it, are both of intrinsic value.
This is the core of philosophy and philosophizing: to pursue wisdom, virtue, and good character. By studying, practicing, and teaching philosophy, we refine our character, develop virtues, and flourish as humans. If we worry that a publishing AI makes our work redundant, it is because we have forgotten what philosophy is actually about.
Yet, this isn’t to say that writing papers in Phil Review is of no value. It is of value insofar as it is a sign of virtuosity. The ability to produce rigorous, technical, or otherwise sophisticated scholarship is a virtue, just like playing difficult pieces on the piano is a virtue. After all, this is exactly what a dissertation in philosophy is: a sign that the author has developed a certain degree of virtuosity in the field, just like a senior recital that reveals as much about a student of performing arts. What we celebrate in theses and recitals is the capability of the authors and performers, rather than the outcomes.
And developing these capabilities is a cause for celebration, regardless of whether AI shares them. We didn’t stop celebrating champions of weightlifting when forklifts were invented. Nor did anyone stop going to the gym. Why think we should stop writing philosophy or celebrating someone who succeeds at it, once AI publishes in Phil Review? For if weightlifting develops the virtues of the body, philosophizing develops the virtues of the mind.
Of course, when we go to a music recital, we go to enjoy the music too. Philosopher and Youtube star, Jeffrey Kaplan says that one reason to study philosophy is to produce reasoned answers to philosophical questions (which he defines as questions that have no empirical or mathematical answers). But even going to professional music performances is still partly about celebrating the achievement of the performer(s) and the years of practice that went into preparing the repertoire before us. In the same way, in professional philosophy, we partly circulate and read papers for their content but also partly to celebrate their authors and their achievements. More importantly—and here the analogy between music and philosophy breaks—we circulate the papers because reading their content is important for our collective philosophical development. In this case, the contents of the papers are the medium of philosophical debate, which is how we philosophers practice our repertoires.
Amin Ebrahimi Afrouzi
Amin Ebrahimi Afrouzi is an expert on AI art ethics and the Knight Digital Public Sphere Fellow at Yale Law School.
