Is Philosophy Inherently Evil? (Col 2:8)

“See to it that no one takes you captive by means of philosophy (διὰ τῆς φιλοσοφίας) and empty deceit (καὶ κενῆς ἀπάτης), according to the tradition of men (κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων), according to the elemental spirits of the world (κατὰ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου), and not according to Christ (καὶ οὐ κατὰ Χριστόν).“

There are two main questions. The first is, what does Paul mean by “φιλοσοφία,” brought into English as a transliteration, “philosophy”? If you know the culture of the day, you know that Paul is not objecting to Plato or to disciplined thought. Paul is dealing either with the smooth-talking sophists who consider it a victory if they win the debate (truth is irrelevant; sound familiar in today’s culture?) or people passing falsehood off as truth.

The second has to do with the impression of translating the Greek as “philosophy and empty deceit” as do most translations. The “and” keeps “philosophy” and “empty deceit” so close together that they sound like they are describing a single entity: “empty, deceitful philosophy.” Sensitivity to this issue explains some of the translations: “hollow and deceptive philosophy” (NIV); “an empty, deceitful philosophy” (NET, notice the lack of a conjunction, and the use of “an” and the comma); “empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense” (NLT). These view the καί as epexegetical.

The solution is in the details. Check the Greek carefully. διὰ τῆς φιλοσοφίας καὶ κενῆς ἀπάτης. Notice that there is only one preposition, and while φιλοσοφίας is articular, ἀπάτης is anarthrous. What does that mean?

If φιλοσοφίας and ἀπάτης were two different things, we would expect both the preposition and the article to be repeated, or at least the article. But as Paul phrases it, both words are pulled together into a singular concept by διὰ τῆς.

Philosophy is not inherently evil; “empty, deceitful philosophy” is. Morphologically, “philosophy” means “love of truth.” “Philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It seeks to understand and critically examine the underlying principles that govern reality and human life. Philosophy often involves asking deep, abstract, and sometimes unanswerable questions” (ChaptGPT). There is nothing evil about that.

We all live by a philosophy, or at least a combination of philosophies, whether we recognize it or not. Our philosophy seeks to put all the pieces of reality into some understandable whole. What is dangerous is when the truth of Scripture does not guide our philosophy. It is helpful to look at our major beliefs and ask why we think the way we do. Does God’s truth guide our love of truth? Are we thinking “according to Christ”?