[lit-ideas] Philo-Sophos
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 21:01:40 EDT
Geary writes:
>>Philosophy is about thinking
>>rationally --
>>that's why I
>>chucked it, knowing I'd never succeed there. Nor in math.
Erin Holder comments (to "philosophy is about thinking rationally").
>Uh oh. I'm in trouble.
If you think about it, there are, in this picture, two types of thinking,
"thinking rationally" and "not thinking rationally" (not necessarily thinking
"irrationally"). On the other hand, there's the contrast between "thinking
rationally" and "feeling emotionally" -- (as opposed to 'feeling rationally').
On the other hand (one too many) there is thinking and feeling _reasonably_
(well), which is different from 'rationally'.
I don't think Socrates and the pre-socratics (who invented 'philosophia')
were into patterns of rational thinking. Etymologically, it just means "love of
wisdom". Although for Heidegger, it's precisely the opposite: "wisdom of
love" ("philo-sophia").
(One element in favour of Heidegger's derivation is that the practitioner of
philosophy is the 'philosopher' (philosophos', philosophe), which is, not,
the _lover_ of wisdom, but a 'sophos' (wise person) of love -- whatever that
meant for Socrates and the Presocratics).
Cheers,
JL
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