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Books

Inner Space Philosophy by James Tartaglia

Artur Szutta explores inner space with James Tartaglia.

There are books that captivate us: when we read them, hours pass like minutes. We immerse ourselves in them completely, and after reading them we’re different people. This is often the case with great literature, or even a good crime novel; but can it also happen when reading a contemporary philosophical text?

For James Tartaglia, Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy at the University of Keele, and the author of Inner Space Philosophy: Why the Next Stage of Human Development Should Be Philosophical, Explained Radically (Suitable for Wolves) (iFF Books, 2024), the answer is generally ‘no’. He reminds us that the dominant style in philosophy today is one of dry, detailed analysis and argumentation, filled with technical terms that only specialists – and often very few of them – can get through. The author of a professional (that is, an academic) philosophical text is lucky if the number of readers extends beyond themselves, their reviewers, and the students who have to read their book to take their class.

My Mind & My Thoughts (detail) by Kartick Dutta 2023
Image © Kartick Dutta 2023 Creative Commons 4.0 International

By contrast, and as Tartaglia writes in the opening lines of Inner Space Philosophy, the ideas that capture our attention the most – the ones we’re most willing to delve into, discuss, and reinterpret – come from acts of imagination, or as we might say, from capturing a vision (p.1). And since imagination holds such value in philosophy, it’s important, as Tartaglia argues, to pay attention to the way ideas are presented in a philosophical text (p.2). We’re looking for a presentation that stimulates the imagination; that inspires and draws readers in. And the literary forms that stimulate the imagination most are poetry, dialogues, allegories, neologisms, meditations, aphorisms, and thought experiments. With this in mind, aside from the Introduction, which retains the form of a standard philosophical essay, the chapters of this book deliberately use other forms of writing, such as memoirs (the third chapter), dialogues (the fourth and sixth chapters), deep meditation (for example, Chapter One), and collections of aphorisms. It also contains satirical elements, especially in the sixth chapter, where two philosophers generated in a future simulation discuss the book. The author also suggests in its subtitle that this book is ‘suitable for wolves’. He means those who wish to grasp philosophical ideas on their own, who ‘connect the dots’ in their own way – thus freeing philosophy from homogenization. Its richness will lie in the diversity of styles and thinking, just as in literature, painting, or music (a field close to the author, who is also a jazz saxophonist).

Unfortunately, contemporary academic philosophy largely neglects imagination. Even thought experiments – without which, as Tartaglia notes, it is difficult to imagine the majority of philosophical debates over the last sixty years – have become academically suspect. What dominates instead is standardized dry, concise, technical prose, according to the model of academic scientific publications. After all, since the beginning of the twentieth century, academic philosophy is meant to be (or has had aspirations of being) a science; so there should be no room for emotionally stimulating visions expressed in high quality prose. All that matters is precision and sound argumentation.

According to Tartaglia, the ‘scientification’ of philosophy is based on the materialist perspective that presently dominates it, and this further weakens the ability of contemporary philosophical literature to attract people. Many of the philosophical topics that are most important from the perspective of the non-professional – such as the meaning of life, free will, the existence of the soul, and moral values – are not considered worthy of discussion within so-called ‘scientific’ philosophy because they are ontologically suspect, meaning, they require that materialism is false. Therefore, beyond being an attempt to return to forgotten forms of philosophizing, Tartaglia’s Inner Space Philosophy is also a defense of metaphysics, for which these topics constitute the central issues.

The metaphysics Tartaglia himself adopts is the idealism of inner space. As he writes, everything we come to know, encounter, and ultimately value, are, immediately speaking, our experiences. And these experiences take place in our inner space; that is, in our consciousness. Everything real to us happens in this space, and the quality of our lives depends on what happens within it. Thus – as the author further argues – humanity’s future depends not on the exploration of physical outer space, but on the development of humanity’s inner space. Here, philosophy has a significant role to play. However, Tartaglia distinctly does not mean either the development of academic philosophy itself, nor its influence on society, but rather, inspiring people to deepen their understanding of themselves and others: to philosophically develop their inner space so that they can consciously and responsibly navigate an increasingly complex and technologically advanced world. If the future is to be worth living in, it must be philosophical.

Did the author achieve his goals in this book? Well, a lot depends on the reader. For me, reading the book was an enjoyable experience. However, I am a professional philosopher, drawn to even the driest ‘scientific’ philosophical texts. So perhaps it’s not for me to judge. You’ll have to try it yourself – especially if you’re a wolf.

Artur Szutta is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Gdansk. He is also the editor-in-chief of Filozofuj!, a magazine popularising philosophy in Poland.

• Inner Space Philosophy, by James Tartaglia, iFF Books, 2024, £16.99 pb, 304 pages