How might philosophy be able to teach us to "see?" Can it? Should it?
It seems that almost every study or subject helps us see. That is to say that it trains one to look for specific things.When one views something one look at that thing which one is viewing with a certain set of eyes. One takes an art class and is told to look at Leonardo da Vinci's
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne. As an art student what one might focus on are the lines of interaction amongst the three main figures, the perspective in which the artist has chosen to draw the mountains in the back, the positioning of the hands. These are the things that one is taught to look for as an art student, yet if one were to view this same art work as a psychologist, one would see something different such as Mary sitting on her mother's lap,the child holding the lamb, or the fact that both St. Anne and Mary are shown as opposed to simply just Mary. The painting is the same and yet what holds the viewer depends on what kind of eyes they are seeing the painting with.
The same holds true for philosophy, it helps one see just like these other subject do. One can read
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, and possibly see it as a romance, or as a political piece if that is what one's eyes were geared to seeing or one could see it as a representation of the nihilistic movement at the time. The point being that philosophy allows one to see things that one may not have see if one were not looking; that's how it helps one see. As to the question of whether or not it should; of course it should the more set of eyes one views something through( artistic, philosophical, psychological) the better one is able to grasp that thing which on is viewing in its
totality.
How many sets of eyes do we view the world through, and are we able to use them all at one time or do we just switch in and out of the them, having us miss the whole picture?
