Ray Smith and Philosophy

Througout The Dharma Bums, Ray Smith ponders many philosophical claims whether they are about religion or how we perceive the outside world. The philosophical problems addressed in the book include many principles of famous philosophers. The first would be the use of Brie Gertler's disembodiment argument that claims our minds are responsible for our ideas about the external world and not our bodies. Also, George Berkeley's philosophical view that the external world does not exist due to there being no criterion to prove that it does. These philosophical ideas were brought up in the beginning of the book when Ray considers the Lankavatara Scriptures. At this point, Ray does not understand these philosophies entirely and contemplates these ideas throughout the book.

Later in the story, Ray develops a dualist point of view like that of Frank Jackson and believes we use both our mind and bodies to form ideas. He also becomes an empiricist by the end of the book. Ray makes the statement: “Your mind makes out the orange by seeing it, hearing it, touching it, smelling it, tasting it and thinking about it but without this mind, you call it, the orange would not be seen or heard or smelled or tasted or even mentally noticed, it's actually, that orange, depending on your mind to exist! Don't you see that? By itself it's a no-thing, it's really mental, it's seen only of your mind. In other words it's empty and awake” (page 145). Ray now believes that we perceive the world through our senses which is the definition of empiricism. He obtained knowledge about the orange from his senses by use of his body which told his mind the idea of the orange. In the end, he became both a dualist and empiricist.

Ray’s philosophical views towards the end of the book are very similar to John Locke’s who was a very famous empiricist. And if you do not know who John Locke is, here’s a 3 minute summary of his main ideas: Three Minute Philosophy - John Locke.

-Jessica