Commencement Address delivered by Casey Lewry
Law School Auditorium, Boston University, May 18, 2019
You’re all in luck, because if philosophers know anything, it’s the importance of being concise. In nearly every philosophy class, professors have us write weekly one-page papers, where we have to take what we’ve read and argue for something about it in just one page. It’s extremely difficult, but it teaches us how to be concise. In my four years of philosophy, I’ve written 62 of them. So for today, being sentimental, I’ve prepared my last ever one-page paper (and I promise, it’s really just one page, so you won’t have to listen to me for long).
I’m lucky, because from the very beginning I knew that I wanted to study philosophy – I blame this on my sister, who made me read Plato and Augustine in high school. But when I told people I wanted to study philosophy, most of them had the same question: “what exactly is philosophy?” And honestly, I had no idea. Every class seemed to be on a different topic, ranging from “how do I be a good person?” to “does that chair actually exist?” What could these questions possibly have to do with each other? But this really weird thing about philosophy is what makes it so cool. It doesn’t really have a subject matter, which means that you can apply it to every subject matter. Philosophy is a way of thinking about the world, using logic and arguments to tackle any question you could possibly ask.
The question that I want to ask is how we make moral judgments and decisions. Primarily, I study this through psychology. But as I’ve learned over the past four years, I can’t do it without philosophy. Philosophy not only helps me critically analyze psychology research methods and results, but it allows me to challenge the foundations of psychology as a discipline by expanding the set of questions that can be asked. For example, I’ve been working on a project with Professor Kumar trying to understand how, when, and why psychological capacities like empathy and reasoning can be used as tools for social justice and moral progress.
Today, I know how necessarily interconnected psychology and philosophy are, but this was not always the case. I learned it two years ago, when I received the Karbank Fellowship, which allows philosophy students to spend the summer learning about almost anything they’re interested in. I took this opportunity to learn what it means to teach, using research from the psychology lab I work in, as well as reflecting on Plato’s Meno, which raises the question of whether teaching is even possible. That summer, I gained insight into what teaching is and I also learned how to do it effectively. Specifically, I learned the importance of misconceptions.
I believe misconceptions should be the first thing addressed when teaching anything. This belief was reinforced when I spent a semester in Singapore. There, the homeless population is largely invisible, pushed out of sight and out of mind. Because of this, my Singaporean friends genuinely did not see homelessness as an issue, though they knew a homeless population existed there. The same is largely true for Boston University students as well. It’s easy for us to stay in the “BU bubble” and not recognize the injustice that exists around us. During my time here, I’ve worked hard trying to make myself and others less ignorant. For the past four years, I’ve led a service group, Helping Hands for the Homeless, which aims not only to serve the Boston homeless population, but also to educate students about social justice issues – by addressing misconceptions – so that hopefully they will gain a lifelong motivation to help others. By learning how to teach effectively through philosophy, I have become more aware of my responsibility to my community and also become more knowledgeable about how best to help.
When someone today asks me, “what is philosophy?”, I can say that it is something transformative. The ability to use logic, to critique methods, and challenge foundational beliefs transforms what exists and what you know. Philosophy has changed my perception and approach to psychology, to teaching, to ignorance, and justice, and has helped me answer any question I could possibly ask.