Philosophers walk in the streets

The realist, the idealist, the materialist, the atomist, the rationalist... These are not primarily schools of thought. Philosophical “schools” are attitudes towards us, other people and the world. When cooking, when buying groceries, when speaking about our community, when buying things. We behave as realists, or as idealists or as atomists. Formal philosophy is just a moment of reflection of the modes of thought in which our everyday life is embedded. When cooking we behave like materialists. When we use money, we behave like idealists. When we judge ourselves and our success in society, we behave as atomists. These are not explicit ideas or conscious behaviors. They are approaches to things embedded in language, in institutions, and everyday thought. We act in certain context as if we were from this or that school or thought. What counts is not belief, but the structure: “acting as if we believed that…”. In this sense, we believe with our acts, not with our heads. This is an idea shared by Hegel, Marx and also Freud. In this sense, the three recognize the unconscious nature of action, but also the fact, actions are nonetheless highly structured, as if they were result of some thought.