The Department of Philosophy Colloquium Series Presents
The Value of Philosophy or a Philosophy of Value
By Steven Burik
Response by Fanklin Perkins
Date: Friday, November 21, 2025
Time: 2:30pm
Location: Sakamaki C-308
Email: philo@hawaii.edu
Phone: (808) 956-8649
What is the use of something useless like philosophy? In this paper on the concepts of use and value, I ask whether we are really doing the right thing by asking philosophy to be of use, or to be of value. I argue that if value still has some meaning within philosophy, it should be sought not in terms of economics, technology, measurable impact, or any other human making or doing. From technology to economics, the scientific and metaphysical worldview sees the world in terms of resources, objects, value. We have framed the world in such a way that it only appears within these artificial constructs, as objects before a subject. So, how else can we think of value? I realise I am not doing anyone a favour by arguing we should not be useful. In the real world, we often have no choice but to be useful. But I hope to show how philosophy can contribute a different approach to usefulness, where what is impossible to capture or measure in rubrics and rules and regulations, where what is not clearly profitable or valuable, is still very,
very much worth thinking about.
Steven Burik is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Singapore Management University. He is also the Associate Dean for Student Matters and Alumni Affairs in the School of Social Sciences, and currently holds a Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship.