The Way Fayer

An edited version of this was featured in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sunday, July 27, 2025. It was titled “Establishing an Arkansas philosophy” and accredited to Bo Simpson, who is also the writer of this blog.

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Let’s begin with a simple observation: anyone thinking about philosophy is more likely to picture Athens than Arkansas. (And for my SEC fans I’m talking about Athens, Greece, not Georgia.) Or perhaps something else comes to mind, like a strange philosophy professor talking nonsense about tables and trolleys from their college years. What they’re unlikely to think of is the ordinary Arkansan, whether it’s their local mayor, doctor, or next-door neighbor.

Regardless, it’s easy to feel now as if life has never been more complicated. We are more divided as a nation, a state, and a community than ever before. There are several reasons for this, some being more obvious than others.

U.S. politics, for one, remains divided between the Republican and Democratic parties, with leaders that seem more and more at each others’ throats everyday. It doesn’t help that each party is also divided within itself.

Another less obvious reason for the divide in the United States is true for most of the Western world. That is, we live in a culture of specialization. Everyone finds their niche and sticks to it.

Unfortunately, the result is a world of specialists who know a lot about their fields but very little about others. You’d think mass communication would help us to stay informed, but the influx of advanced technology has only made things worse. With all the information now at our fingertips, it’s hard to know what to believe.

This change is due in part to a rise in social media-style reporting, making it so that every Jack or Jill with a cell phone, TikTok, or X account thinks they are a journalist. I can tell you now that an appeal to authority is not a fallacy if the authority is an expert … and you are not.

You may be wondering what all of this has to do with philosophy and, more specifically, Arkansan philosophy.

Philosophy shapes the way that we think as individuals and as a society. It literally means “the love of wisdom.” But philosophy is basically just this: the study of everything. It questions reality, our ability to understand reality, human nature, and any corresponding obligations we might have.

What’s more, philosophy is as common to each person as their hometown: everybody has one even if they’re disinclined to admit it. Put simply, a person’s philosophy is just their answers to the questions listed at the bottom of the previous paragraph (i.e., “What is real?” “How can I know?” “Who am I?”  “What should I do?”), whether or not they can put them into words.

In a way, we are all philosophers, just to varying degrees.

So when looking at the division of the world today and asking ourselves fundamental questions about philosophy, what we are really doing is evaluating the way the world is, the way it was, and the way it should be. In the same vein, the only way to figure out where we are now is to figure out where we have been and where we are headed.

In order to do this, however, we must teach ourselves to be more philosophical.

It’s worth noting that as an academic discipline, philosophy has become highly technical and hard to follow in recent years. It often feels like contemporary philosophers are more concerned with abstract questions, such as whether or not we’re living in a simulation, than they are with practical questions about everyday life. For Arkansans and their preference for common sense and plain-spoken language, this way of thinking is immediately deemed impractical.

As a result, philosophy becomes disregarded by ordinary people and overcomplicated by academics, who seem almost possessive of their right to it.

Perhaps it’s for this reason that, when thinking about philosophy, Socrates comes to mind before Sarah Huckabee Sanders, despite Sanders being the leading official in our state. In her defense, Socrates is the Father of Philosophy. But whose philosophy could be more pertinent to Arkansans than their governor’s, if not their own?

As a native Arkansan, my attention immediately turns to the philosophy of our state. What is it, and what should it be?

Few people are better suited to answer this question than a former governor, in this case, Mike Beebe.

“My philosophy as governor was to underpromise and overdeliver,” said Beebe. “This was to avoid cynicism about politics—too many politicians overpromise and underdeliver.”

When asked about the philosophy of Arkansas, Beebe’s answer was clear and without hesitation. “Hardworking and patriotic. All our lives we’ve heard thank God for Mississippi, but I said enough of that … I wanted to instill a swagger in our state. Not a Texas swagger, but a self-confidence.”

Beebe acknowledged that this self-confidence may be slipping a little and ought to be reinstilled. He attributes this slip to significant drops in education rankings on top of a general sense of malaise present in the current political climate. 

“The center of America has always been its strength. It will take people getting fed up with extremes to gravitate back toward sensibility. Our values are still there, bred into all of us.”

To Mike Beebe, an understanding of philosophy gives us something to live by that reflects the values of our state. To put it differently, this understanding informs our individual philosophies which then gives direction to the philosophy of our state, in turn reflecting something that perhaps was there to begin with.

So where does this leave us?

I believe we have a responsibility to better understand philosophy so that we can better understand each other. This entails examining history, language, and reality, learning to think intentionally about these bizarre lives that we live—ones we didn’t choose but that seemingly chose us, and ones we should wish to preserve in others as we wish to preserve in ourselves.

As you may have guessed by now, the world doesn’t exactly become a better place overnight—nor does it become a better place by imposing structure from the top down. What I mean to say is that the world doesn’t become fixed by politics. Instead, it becomes a better place when we learn how to think for ourselves, then as a community, then as a humanity … which means together.

How could we possibly know what’s best for Arkansas if we fail to ask first what’s best for ourselves or, for that matter, what’s best for anybody?

Philosophy is meant for all those who dare to ask the important questions, or for those who dare to wonder. And it makes us human, too, because to be human is to do precisely that. As Socrates said: “All wisdom begins in wonder.”

It follows, then, that philosophy is meant for the ordinary Arkansan, for the hardworking and patriotic men and women of this state searching for self-confidence when really, it’s been with them all the time. All they had to do was ask the right questions, look up at the stars, and believe that greatness can be found in good ol’ anywhere. 

To close, I suppose I’ll invoke the inspirational last words of Socrates who died saying, “What the hell did I drink?” The answer in this case is clear: homemade sweet tea and Arkansan philosophy.