Death of a Philosopher

A Conversation with an Innocent Daughter

Daughter: “Papa, you and Uncle were talking about Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Hegel, who were they?

Father: “Well, they were great philosophers.”

Daughter: “Papa, who is a Philosopher?”

Father: “Philosophers are deep thinkers, curious to learn about life, its existence, the knowledge and reasons of existence.”

Daughter: “I also think of these questions, but I get all the answers from ChatGPT and Gemini. Do Philosophers don’t have laptops?”

Father: “We are talking about people thousands of years ago. There were no computers or internet at that time.”

Daughter: “Then where did they get the answers to all these questions?”

Father: “They used to observe nature, things, people and their behaviour, culture and then talk about their thoughts.”

Daughter: “But how can you just think and get answers? Were they magicians?”

Father: “Philosophers often question everything try to find reasons behind everything and always inquire rather than just following whatever other people say.”

Daughter: “ I also ask so many questions and think — remember the other day I asked why the Sun is round and not square. So am I not a philosopher?”

Father: “Good questions, as long as you keep thinking of different questions and try to find reasons from your knowledge as you grow up, you can become a Philosopher, my dear.”

Daughter: “But if I have internet and AI(Artificial Intelligence), why should I waste time thinking? If I find some answers using AI, can’t I be a Philosopher?”

Father: “ Hmm! You will get answers from the known thoughts or books already written by different authors. Unless there is something creative, a new idea or answer, I don’t think you can become a philosopher. You need to probe, inquire and look at different perspectives.”

Daughter: “But….. What should I think? I can get all the answers today. Give me a question and I can get an answer right now.”

Father: “It is not the same answer but you need to think beyond, something new and give a rationale behind it.

Remember, sitting and observing an apple fall created laws of science ..”

Daughter: “Like what? Ok…. I think philosophers were in the olden days. I am good with my Google, Gemini and ChatGPT. I think we don’t need Philosophers, now that we have AI.”

Father: “ You must read their books when you grow up. Start with ‘Sophie’s World’ by Jostein Gaarder, it is amazing to know about their observations and thoughts when they had no modern tools and science.”

Daughter: “I will get the summary of the book from ChatGPT”.

The Dad is now silent and thinking about how the attention span of his child changed and how people want quick answers today.

Reading and observations while sitting quietly are becoming obsolete. He is confused and thinking,

‘Am I getting old or the ways of the new generation have changed’.

And then the Daughter came back with another question..

Daughter: “Papa, who is the most recent philosopher in this century?”

Father: “Hmm…. My knowledge is limited, I don’t remember any most recent names.”

Daughter: “ See I told you, the AI tools know all the books and magazines of the world which I can get in a second, so they are the modern Philosophers. And Papa, if we still need human philosophers we can have them using a chip in the brain.”

Now the father is more confused and feeling sad. He is thinking …

He is not able to convince his daughter and is thinking, ‘Is it the Death of a Philosopher?’

He walks away to take a stroll in nature and get answers from nature, the ‘traditional way’…

Note: This article is also published in Medium