EPILOGUE

That’s it – we’ve reached the end. The Conclusion. Shall we do what people normally do at this point, and conclude? Or is there maybe time for one final thought?

What is a conclusion? It’s an opportunity to summarize what’s been looked at and learned. It’s a chance for an author to complete an argument, and to draw out what follows from their various premises. It’s the place where we come to a rest after all the to-ing and fro-ing of the text, the objections and counter-objections and theses and anti-theses. A conclusion is an end-point, a full stop, a final declaration of one’s position!… and as such, it’s tangibly at odds with the aims of this book, and indeed, of philosophy more generally.

We’ve looked at a number of interesting, and sometimes bizarre philosophical ideas. They’ve been confusing to write about – and exciting and irritating and disturbing too – so I can only imagine what they’ve been like to read. Have they provoked you? Have they made you feel uncomfortable? I hope so. Have you agreed with every single thought on offer? I sincerely hope not. If you’re like me, you’ll have found yourself oscillating between different opinions, swaying between one position and the next. And that, I think, is part of the point of philosophy. To be continually questioning your position and testing out different perspectives.

It doesn’t feel right that a philosophy book should end with a conclusion. Because there’s never any problem or puzzle or paradox to which we can’t add another question or confusion. Like we said at the start, philosophy isn’t really about getting answers, it’s about getting puzzled and thinking deeper, and differently. And I hope that’s what this book has helped you do.

So let’s finish with a lesson learned from the B-movie classics, and write:

The End

…OR IS IT?

‘Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are more essential than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question…’ Karl Jaspers

OR DOES IT?