[lit-ideas] Re: Why philosophy?

I find that there is much here that repays careful reflection and analysis. But
why JM subsequently describes himself as a "professional sophist" remains a
mystery to me. As we have no privileged self-access to our self-attributions,
attempts at resolving the mystery are certainly open to all and welcomed.

Walter O.
MUN




Quoting John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Why is it that I chose to major in philosophy, way back when? Why is it that
> I hang out here, making a nuisance of myself picking away at philosophers'
> arguments?
> 
> Professor Paul suggests that philosophy is an activity. Walter O. describes
> that activity as
> *
> **a transcendental form of inquiry into the apriori conditions necessary for
> the
> possibility and limits of specific discourses and competencies.*
> 
> I see grounds for agreement here. To me philosophy is the kind of thinking I
> do with the angle of the lens through which my mind's eye peers set to the
> widest possible angle. Philosophy is rooted in perennial questions: Who or
> what am I? What am I doing here? What should I be doing here? How can I
> know? The history of philosophy records a long conversation in which very
> smart and determined people struggle with these questions, proposing answers
> broad enough to encompass both themselves and the world in which they find
> themselves. Since philosophers are only human, their answers are always
> partial. Whatever the answers are, they are to other philosophers, either
> incomplete or mistaken. Problems are always left unsolved. Thus the
> conversation continues.
> 
> Why study philosophy? No other conversation provides the breadth of
> perspective that this one does. Other disciplines zoom in on their special
> subjects. This one steps back and asks, how do these details fit into the
> bigger picture, the one we try to comprehend as we struggle to answer those
> perennial questions mentioned above?
> 
> Philosophy, I would argue, has never been more important than now, this
> Internet age when trying to keep up with what is going on is like trying to
> remain standing in the jet from a fire hose. Where else can we learn to
> recognize and make our own the great, perennial ideas that shape all sorts
> of conversations, whatever the specific topic at hand?
> 
> As a pragmatist and professional sophist, I can't live without it.
> 
> John
> 
> -- 
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> Tel. +81-45-314-9324
> http://www.wordworks.jp/
> 



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