The philosopher’s duty is to stay awake and sound the alarm

Evidence

Marcel’s ‘shell’ recalls Husserl’s notion of the accumulated and inflexible preconceptions that one should set aside in the epoché, so as to open up access to the ‘things themselves’. In both cases, what is rigid is cleared away, and the trembling freshness of what is underneath bcomes the object of the philosopher’s attention. For Marcel, learning to stay open to reality in this way is the philosopher’s prime job. Everyone can do it, but the philosopher is the one who is called on above all to stay awake, so as to be the first to sound the alarm if something seems wrong. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 288

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘philosopher as watchdog’ role echoes Orwell’s description of intellectuals, and Marcel’s shell-like rigidity parallels William James’s ‘dead’ versus ‘living’ belief.