My definition of philosophy
Posted by Peter Adamson on 26 November 2012
I came up with that definition of philosophy (thanks for the help). Not really happy with it, but: "Originally (in antiquity and the middle ages) philosophy was the search for knowledge for its own sake, in a very general sense: so it included physics and other kinds of natural science. In the modern world we have a more narrow notion of philosophy, where it means dealing with fundamental questions, especially in ethics, metaphysics and epistemology."
Here's the German version in case you're curious: "Ursprünglich (in der Antike und im Mittelalter) war Philosophie die Suche nach Wissen für das Wissen selbst, also mit keinem anderen Zweck, im sehr allgemeinen Sinn: also gehörten Physik und andere Naturwissen-schaften zur Philosophie. In der modernen Zeit haben wir eher einen begrenzten Begriff der Philosophie, so dass sie nur mit grundlegenden Fragen zu tun hat, vor allem in Ethik, Metaphysik und Epistemologie."
- 1599 reads
Of course I am a dwarf and I
Of course I am a dwarf and I am not even standing on your solders, but I'd say that any definition of philosophy (ancient and medieval at least) has to say that it was not about knowledge for its own sake, but knowledge to attain virtue. I guess you could say here virtue, or purification, or liberation from matter, or homoiosis theoi/ al-tashabbuh bi'l-ilah or things like that
In other words: "To think, to ask, to behave"
What do you think?
Were some of those
Were some of those pre-socratics, for example, primarily after virtue, liberation from matter and/or purity? Or in their philosophical activities were they interested in attaining knowledge because they really, really love knowledge for its own sake?
Good point. I think that at
Good point. I think that at least some Presocratics have a more theoretical, knowledge-for-its-own-sake interest in accounting for the world around them (they are studying "nature" in the broadest sense). Some but not all Presocratics did talk about virtue, though, for instance Heraclitus and Democritus. It's interesting that even the more "natural philosopher" type Presocratics do use moral and legal metaphors for nature, though, e.g. the idea about the elements "paying retribution" to one another. So it may be that there was always a background idea that human ethical life is supposed somehow to mirror the justice of cosmic causal interaction.
Perhaps like everybody that's
Perhaps like everybody that's been made aware of this rich intellectual history it depresses me we don't have more writings and (as you point out) we're tortured with surviving lists of what didn't make it. Much chance they'll ever turn up more?? I'd murder for Aristotle's dialogs that "flowed like a river of gold", which may not be virtuous of me but would be for the greater good.
Well, they have found more
Well, they have found more even in the last 25 years (the Strasbourg Empedocles) and as techniques for scanning and reading things like charred manuscripts, more things may turn up. New texts turn up more often though for medieval philosophy including in Arabic.
To be fair though it's not like many of us have read most of what still exists! So perhaps we shouldn't be greedy. On the other hand I would join you in the dock to have a sizable collection of Chrysippus...
Peter
Firstly I'm happy to join you
Firstly I'm happy to join you as being a fellow dwarf. If we get 5 more and someone to play Snow White, we could be in a movie!
Secondly I definitely agree that in the ancient and medieval traditions philosophy is about how to live, as Hadot has argued. The question is whether that is essential to what philosophy is. It's not only very recently after the professionalization of philosophy that life and philosophical activity have come apart; think of Hume's discussion of leaving skepticism behind when you leave the study. But I guess someone might say that philosophy should involve the question of how to live even if it doesn't always.
Peter
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