Musonius Rufus, Lectures 11.1

Lecture 11: What means of livelihood are appropriate for a philosopher? 

There is also another means of livelihood in no way inferior to this, indeed, perhaps it would not be unreasonable to consider it even better for a strong person, namely earning a living from the soil, whether one owns his own land or not.

For many who are farming land owned either by the state or by other private individuals are yet able to support not only themselves but their wives and children as well; and some in fact attain even a high degree of prosperity by hard work with their own hands. 

This may seem an odd sort of question, because most of us would assume that being a “philosopher” is itself already a profession, one for which you go to certain schools, receive certain accreditations, and then make a living writing articles and teaching other people about becoming philosophers.

In this sense, philosophers are seen as making their way by not doing much of anything, but rather by telling other people how to go about doing things. This is often sadly true, though only for those who understand philosophy in the shallowest sense.

The standing joke, of course, is that philosophy majors will never make any money from their useless trade, but that is not necessarily the case. I know a good number who have turned their studies into lucrative careers, either by putting on an academic puppet show, or by using their credentials to move on into fields like law or business.

Those who aren’t cut out for that sort of self-promotion, however, will likely give up philosophy entirely, and find other ways to produce and consume.

Fully aware that my own thinking goes quite against the grain, I will nevertheless suggest that philosophy is not really a profession at all; it is a vocation.

The genuine philosopher seeks meaning first and foremost, and so looks behind all those concerns about making money or building status. When he must ask how to feed, clothe, or house himself, he will not think that these things alone constitute living well, but rather that they must be informed by living well.

Accordingly, anyone, regardless of how he tries to pay the bills, is able to be a philosopher, as long as his most important calling is to be human above all else.

Most of the wisest and best people I have known were never formally trained in philosophy, and they never pontificated in any lecture hall. They followed the urges of their minds and hearts to know and to love, to be brave enough to distinguish between the true and the false, the right and the wrong, before they pursued any action.

Given that philosophy is a universal mission, might there be certain jobs or lifestyles most conducive to a good life? Musonius will here suggest that the life of a farmer, living close to the land that Nature provides, is quite clearly ideal for the man who wishes to live in accord with Nature.

What Musonius has to say makes me reconsider my own choices in life, and it inspires me to challenge my own children about the choices that they will make. Perhaps it is wiser to be a Wendell Berry instead of a Bertrand Russell.

Written in 11/1999

IMAGE: Maxfield Parrish, The Philosopher (The Farmer) (1909)