Rational Discourse and making the world a better place.

When I was applying to different programs for grad school, one of the topics I wrote on was philosophy of sexuality. I'm especially interested in discrimination against LGBT people, and I love the work of John Corvino. I think it's great how he takes a question that is very relevant to people's everyday lives, and present the philosophical arguments surrounding it in an accessible way (I mean accessible not only int the sense that the arguments are clear and understandable, but also in a convenient cool medium like a short entertaining Youtube clip--I really think this is a great way to get the public to understand what philosophy is about and why it is important, but I'll save that discussion for another day)

So I told one of my professors that I was considering working in this area and he said to me that these sort of arguments shouldn't even be a concern for philosophers because it's obvious that "you shouldn't discriminate against people for stupid reasons" (please note this conversation took place in a very casual context). Even though I think what people like John Corvino are doing is incredibly important philosophy, I sort of agree with my professor.

In fact, it seems like many fields of philosophy are exploring issues that seem obvious from a rational standpoint, and yet many people have failed to catch up on. It seems very confusing that the basics of such topics as sexism or racism (and for me, animal ethics) seem obvious while in the 'real world' there are many people who have yet to accept them. For example, it would be absurd in my mind for a philosopher today to support the position that violence against women is OK, and yet many people must believe that considering the rate of violence against women that happens every day.

So the average person does not stop and think philosophically about their actions before beating their wife or shouting at a woman on the street. How could they? What this leaves me wondering is, does philosophical discourse really make the world a better place? I feel like philosophy has made me a better person, but what if I am the anomaly? I often feel like people around me have come to their beliefs through some other means than rational discourse,such as following tradition, but does this mean they are incapable of changing that? Can philosophy be used as a tool for a better world or is there some other tool that would be better (like brute force, indoctrination, or social pressure?) I also wonder, if philosophy can;t be used to make the world a better place, is it still worth pursuing for it's own sake?