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How do different philosophers define

philosophy?
Ulrich Balbian
·
March 15, 2019
100+plus books and 80+ videos Visual art on You Tube
In this video we cover a brief definition of the field of philosophy, the word roots and its
history. For more on ...
According to Aristotle - "Philosophy is a science which discovers the real nature of
supernatural elements".
According to Levison - "Philosophy is mental activity".
According to Karl Marks - "Philosophy is the interpretation of the world in order to change
it".
According to Hegel - "Philosophy is that which grasps its won era in thought."
Kant Immanuel Regards philosophy as "the science and criticism of cognition."
According to Russel - "Philosophy proper deals with matters of interest to the general
educated public, and loses much of its value if only a few professionals can understand it."
According to Henderson - "Philosophy is a rigorous, disciplined, guarded analysis of some
of the most difficult problems which men have ever faced."
According to John Dewey - "Philosophy is not a panacea (remedy for all kinds of
diseases/troubles) for the problems of men, but is that which emerges out of the methods
employed by them to solve their problems."
Aristippus thinks that philosophy is "the ability to feel at ease in any society."
According to Socrates - "Philosophy is a daily activity".
According to Phenix - "Science attempts only at the discovery of facts. Philosophy is not
interested in the discovery of facts. Rather, it is interested in facts insofar as to provide an
attitude towards them. It tries to organize, interpret, clarify and criticize the already
discovered facts of science."
D.J. Connar defines philosophy "as an activity of criticism or clarification."
According to Plato "He who has a taste for every sort of knowledge and who is curious to
learn and is never satisfied may be justly termed as a philosopher."
According to G.T.W Patreck - "Between science and philosophy the very closest
relationship exists. They spring from the same root, the love of knowledge and they aspire
to the same end, the knowledge of reality. While science describes the facts, philosophy
interprets them."
According to Brubacher - "Science is interested in the proximate or efficient causes of the
facts, while philosophy is concerned with its ultimate or final causes."
Henderson thinks that philosophy is a research for "a comprehensive view of nature, an
attempt at a universal explanation of the nature of things."
Millard and Bectrocci defined philosophy as the presistent, critical and systematic attempt
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713

2
to discover and consistently formulate in relation to each other the basic characteristics,
meanings and values of our experience in its widest perspectives."
According to Ludwig Wittgenstein - "The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of
thoughts. Philosophy is not a theory, but an activity. A philosophical work consists
essentially of elucidations. The result of philosophy is not a number of ‘philosophical
propositions’, but to make propositions clear. Philosophy should make clear and delimit
sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred."
According to Raymont - "Philosophy is an unceasing effort to discover the general truth
that lies behind the particular fact, to discover also the realities that lies behind
appearance."
According to Carlies Lamont - "philosophy is the tenacious attempts of reasoning men to
think through the most fundamental issues of life, to reach reasonable conclusions on first
and last things to suggest worthwhile goals that can command the loyalty of individuals and
groups."
According to Kilpatric - "Philosophy is a point of view, outlook on life."
According to Dr.Radhakrishnan - "Philosophy is a view of life. It gives a direction to life,
offers a design for living."
According to Existentialists - "Philosophy is not a search for truth, but a trail of truth".
According to Hiryana - "Philosophy is a emerged as a result of reflection over the
experiences and problems of everyday living."
According to Cicero, Marcus Tullius - "Philosophy is the mother of all arts and "the true
medicine of the mind."
According to George Berkeley - "Philosophy, being nothing but the study of wisdom and
truth..."
According to Brightman - "Philosophy may be defined as an attempt to think truly about
human experience or a whole or to make out whole experience intelligible."
Kant regards philosophy as - "the science and criticism of cognition."
According to Fichte - "Philosophy is the science of knowledge."
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor defined it as the "Science of science."
According to John Armstrong - "Philosophy is the successful love of thinking."
According to Marilyn Adams - "Philosophy is thinking really hard about the most important
questions and trying to bring analytic clarity both to the questions and the answers."
According to Edger S. Brightman - "Philosophy is essentially a spirit or method of
approaching experiential rather than a body of conclusions about the experience."
According to Richard Bradley - "Philosophy is 99 per cent about critical reflection on
anything you care to be interested in.”
According to Bramold - "Philosophy is a persistent effort of both ordinary and persistent
people to make life as intelligible and meaningful as possible."
According to Herbert Spencer - "Philosophy is concerned with everything as a universal
science."
According to Don Cupitt - "Philosophy is critical thinking: trying to become aware of how
one’s own thinking works, of all the things one takes for granted, of the way in which one’s
own thinking shapes the things one’s thinking about."
According to Joseph A. Leighton - "Philosophy like science, consist of theories of insights
arrived at as a result of systematic reflection."
According to Simon Blackburn - "[Philosophy is] a process of reflection on the deepest
concepts, that isstructures of thought, that make up the way in which we think about the
world. So it’s concepts like reason, causation, matter, space, time, mind, consciousness,
free will, all those big abstract words and they make up topics, and people have been
thinking about them for two and a half thousand years and I expect they’ll think about them
for another two and a half thousand years if there are any of us left."
According to R.W. Sellers - "Philosophy is a persistent attempt to gain insight into the
nature of the world and ourselves by systematic reflection."

3
According to C. J. Ducasse - "Were I limited to one line for my answer to it, I should say
that philosophy is a general theory of criticism."
According to Humayun Kabir - philosophy "seeks to give knowledge of the whole."
According to Anthony Kenny - "Philosophy is thinking as clearly as possible about the
most fundamental concepts that reach through all the disciplines."
Huxley, Aldous observes "Men live in accordance with their Philosophy of life."
H. Dumery defines philosophy as a "critical reflection on concrete action."
According to Plato - "Philosophy is the acquisition of knowledge."
According to Clifford Barrat - "It is not the specific content of these conclusions, but the
spirit and the method by which they are reached, which entitles them to be described as
philosophical..."
Curtis, George William states "During the course of centuries, the meaning attached to
philosophy has undergone many changes, and even in the present day, thinkers, are not in
complete agreement about the aims and subject-matter of this branch of knowledge."
According to Michael S. Russo - PHILOSOPHY = "A critical examination of reality
characterized by rational inquiry that aims at the Truth for the sake of attaining wisdom."
Milton K. Munitz suggests that "philosophy is a quest for a view of the world and of man's
place in it, which is arrived at and supported in a critical and logical way."
Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines philosophy as "Love of exercising one’s curiosity and
intelligence" rather than the love of wisdom.
The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy defines it as the study of "the most fundamental
and general concepts and principles involved in thought, action and reality."
Philosophy | Definition of Philosophy by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philosophy
1 : the study of the basic ideas about knowledge, right and wrong, reasoning, and the value
of things. 2 : a specific set of ideas of a person or a group Greek philosophy.
What is Philosophy? An Omnibus of Definitions from Prominent ...
https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/04/09/what-is-philosophy/
Apr 9, 2012 - 'Philosophy is 99 per cent about critical reflection on anything you care to be
interested in.'
50+ Definitions of Philosophy : ~ Eduhutch
eduhutch.blogspot.com/2014/04/50-definitions-of-philosophy.html
Apr 6, 2014 - According to Aristotle - "Philosophy is a science which discovers the real
nature of supernatural elements". According to Levison - "Philosophy ...
Definition | language and philosophy | Britannica.com
https://www.britannica.com/topic/definition
Definition, In philosophy, the specification of the meaning of an expression relative to a
language. Definitions may be classified as lexical, ostensive, and ...
Definition - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition
A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term Definitions can be classified into two
large .... This preoccupation with essence dissipated in much of modern philosophy.
Analytic philosophy in particular is critical of attempts to elucidate the ...
"Definitions, Dictionaries, and Meanings", by Norman Swartz, Dept. of ...

4
https://www.sfu.ca/~swartz/definitions.htm
Students often approach philosophy with beliefs about definition which border on the
magical. Students mistakenly believe that defining one's terms will usually ...
philosophy - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/philosophy
The noun philosophy means the study of proper behavior, and the search for wisdom.
Philosophy Ideas Database
Welcome | Philosophy Ideas Database Database | Current Total Ideas: 19,602
| home | back
structure for 'Philosophy' | expand these ideas
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined

[attempts to define the whole subject of philosophy]
26 ideas
7421
A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by
Foucault]
572
Philosophy has different powers from dialectic, and a different life from sophistry [Aristotle]
609
Philosophy is a kind of science that deals with principles [Aristotle]
624
Absolute thinking is the thinking of thinking [Aristotle]
2666
Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and
the end of appetite (good) [Carneades, by Cicero]
21394
Philosophy is knowing each logos, how they fit together, and what follows from
them [Epictetus]
6207
What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within
me [Kant]
4171
Philosophy considers only the universal, in nature as everywhere else [Schopenhauer]
4186
Everyone is conscious of all philosophical truths, but philosophers bring them to conceptual
awareness [Schopenhauer]

5
19456
Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of
presuppositions [Feuerbach]
5278
Philosophy is no more than abstractions concerning observations of human historical
development [Marx/Engels]
6118
Philosophy is logical analysis, followed by synthesis [Russell]
5368
Philosophy verifies that our hierarchy of instinctive beliefs is harmonious and
consistent [Russell]
2512
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of
language [Wittgenstein]
7085
The main problem of philosophy is what can and cannot be thought and
expressed [Wittgenstein, by Grayling]
6870
I say (contrary to Wittgenstein) that philosophy expresses what we thought we must be
silent about [Ansell Pearson on Wittgenstein]
5196
Philosophy is a department of logic [Ayer]
6707
Suicide - whether life is worth living - is the one serious philosophical problem [Camus]
7426
Critical philosophy is what questions domination at every level [Foucault]
2510
Traditionally philosophy is an a priori enquiry into general truths about reality [Katz]
2516
Most of philosophy begins where science leaves off [Katz]
12644
Who cares what 'philosophy' is? Most pre-1950 thought doesn't now count as
philosophy [Fodor]
8217
Philosophy is a concept-creating discipline [Deleuze/Guattari]
9778
There is no dialogue in philosophy [Zizek]
9218

6
Maybe what distinguishes philosophy from science is its pursuit of necessary truths [Sider]
15357
Philosophy is the most general intellectual discipline [Horsten]
26 ideas
7421
A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by
Foucault]
Full Idea: Socrates asks people 'Are you caring for yourself?' He is the man who cares
about the care of others; this is the particular position of the philosopher.
From: report of Socrates (reports of career [c.420 BCE]) by Michel Foucault - Ethics of the
Concern for Self as Freedom p.287
A reaction: Priests, politicians and psychiatrists also care quite intensely about the
concerns of other people. Someone who was intensely self-absorbed with the critical task
of getting their own beliefs right would count for me as a philosopher.
572
Full Idea: Philosophy differs from dialectic in the manner of its powers, and from sophistry
in the choice of life that it involves.
From: Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1004b)
A reaction: Note the separation of dialectic from the heart of philosophy, and the claim that
philosophy is a way of life.
609
Full Idea: Philosophy is a kind of science that deals with principles.
From: Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1059a)
A reaction: So is philosophy just part of science - the bit that tries to explain the abstract
instead of the physical?
624
Full Idea: Absolute thinking is the thinking of thinking.
A reaction: Connects to the apparently unique human ability to reflect about our own
thoughts.
2666
Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and
the end of appetite (good) [Carneades, by Cicero]

7
Full Idea: Carneades said the two greatest things in philosophy were the criterion of truth
and the end of goods, and no man could be a sage who was ignorant of the existence of
either a beginning of the process of knowledge or an end of appetition.
From: report of Carneades (fragments/reports [c.174 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero -
Academica II.09.29
A reaction: Nice, but I would want to emphasise the distinction between truth and its
criterion. Admittedly we would have no truth without a good criterion, but the truth itself
should be held in higher esteem than our miserable human means of grasping it.
21394
Philosophy is knowing each logos, how they fit together, and what follows from
them [Epictetus]
Full Idea: [Philosophical speculation] consists in knowing the elements of 'logos', what
each of them is like, how they fit together, and what follows from them.
From: Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 4.08.14), quoted by A.A. Long - Hellenistic
Philosophy 4.1
A reaction: [Said to echo Zeno] If you substitute understanding for 'logos' (plausibly), I
think this is exactly the view of philosophy I would subscribe to. We want to understand
each aspect of life, and we want those understandings to cohere with one another.
6207
What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within
me [Kant]
Full Idea: Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the
oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the
moral law within me.
From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], Concl)
A reaction: I am beginning to think that the two major issues of all philosophy are ontology
and metaethics, and Kant is close to agreeing with me. He certainly wasn't implying that
astronomy was a key aspect of philosophy.
4171
Full Idea: Philosophy considers only the universal, in nature as everywhere else.
From: Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], II.27)
A reaction: I think what draws people to philosophy is an interest in whatever is timeless.
Contingent reality is so frustrating and exhausting. Hence I agree.
4186
Full Idea: Every person is conscious of all philosophical truths, but to bring them to
conceptual awareness, to reflection, is the business of the philosopher.
From: Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], IV.68)
A reaction: I like this. All human beings are philosophical. It seems unlikely, though, that
we are all pre-conceptually conscious of the higher levels of philosophical logic.

8
19456
Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of
presuppositions [Feuerbach]
Full Idea: Philosophy does not presuppose anything. It is precisely in this fact of
non-presupposition that its beginning lies - a beginning by virtue of which it is set apart from
all the other sciences.
From: Ludwig Feuerbach (On 'The Beginning of Philosophy' [1841], p.135)
A reaction: Most modern philosophers seem to laugh at such an idea, because everything
is theory-laden, culture-laden, language-laden etc. As an aspiration I love it, and think good
philosophers get quite close to the goal (which, I admit, is not fully attainable).
5278
Full Idea: When reality is depicted, philosophy as an independent branch of knowledge
loses its medium of existence. At best it is a summing up of general results, abstractions
which arise from observation of the historical development of man.
From: K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.A)
A reaction: This strikes me as nonsense, based on a bogus Hegelian notion that history is
following some sort of pattern, and that mental reality is fixed by physical conditions. The
philosophy of mathematics, for one, won't fit into this definition.
6118
Full Idea: The business of philosophy, as I conceive it, is essentially that of logical analysis,
followed by logical synthesis.
From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.162)
A reaction: I am uneasy about Russell's hopes for the contribution that logic could make,
but I totally agree that analysis is the route to wisdom, and I take Aristotle as my role model
of an analytical philosopher, rather than the modern philosophers of logic.
5368
Philosophy verifies that our hierarchy of instinctive beliefs is harmonious and
consistent [Russell]
Full Idea: Philosophy should show us the hierarchy of our instinctive beliefs, ..and show
that they do not clash, but form a harmonious system. There is no reason to reject an
instinctive belief, except that it clashes with others.
From: Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 2)
A reaction: This is open to the standard objections to the coherence theory of truth (as
explained by Russell!), but I like this view of philosophy. Somewhere behind it is the
rationalist dream that the final set of totally consistent beliefs will have to be true.
2512
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language
[Wittgenstein]

9
Full Idea: Philosophical problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by
arranging what we have already known. Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of
our intelligence by means of language.
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], §109), quoted by Jerrold J.
Katz - Realistic Rationalism Int.xi
A reaction: A philosophical dispute can be settled by a piece of information, which may be
already known to you, but new to me. Philosophical discussion can also point to a scientific
research programme - i.e. a need for new information. I like the first sentence.
7085
The main problem of philosophy is what can and cannot be thought and
expressed [Wittgenstein, by Grayling]
Full Idea: The 'Tractatus' concerns the theory of what can be expressed by propositions
(and, which comes to the same thing, can be thought), and what cannot be expressed by
propositions, but can only be shown; which, I believe, is the main problem of philosophy.
From: report of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Letter to Russell [1920]) by A.C. Grayling -
Wittgenstein Ch.2
A reaction: This contains what a I consider the heresy of making thought depend on
language, but his main question remains, of the limits of thought. It is dramatised nicely in
the 'mysterian' view of the mind-body problem (e.g. Idea 2540).
6870
I say (contrary to Wittgenstein) that philosophy expresses what we thought we must be
silent about [Ansell Pearson on Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: I recognise the incredible force of Wittgenstein's closing statement in the
'Tractatus', but I hold the opposite view: philosophy exists to give expression to that which
we think we can only remain silent about.
A reaction: A wonderful remark, with which I totally agree. Compare Idea 1596. I think it is
just a fact that philosophers are able to articulate a huge number of ideas which other
intelligent people find very interesting but on which they are unable to speak.
5196
Full Idea: Philosophy is a departme
A reaction: Personally I would invert that. Philosophy is concerned with human rationality,
of which precise logic appears to be a rather limited subdivision. I see philosophy as the
'master' subject, not the 'servant' subject (as Locke had implied).
6707
Full Idea: There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judgine
whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of
philosophy.
From: Albert Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus [1942], p.11)
A reaction: What a wonderful thesis for a book. In Idea 2682 there is the possibility of life
being worth living, but not worth a huge amount of effort. It is better to call Camus' question
the first question, rather than the only question.

10
7426
Full Idea: In its critical aspect, philosophy is that which calls into question domination at
every level
From: Michel Foucault (Ethics of the Concern for Self as Freedom [1984], p.300)
A reaction: A very French view of the subject. It is tempting to say that they had their
adolescent outburst in 1789, and it is time to grow up. With rights come responsibilities...
2510
Full Idea: The traditional conception of philosophy is that it is an a priori enquiry into the
most general facts about reality.
From: Jerrold J. Katz (Realistic Rationalism [2000], Int.xi)
A reaction: I think this still defines philosophy, though it also highlights the weakness of the
subject, which is over-confidence about asserting necessary truths. How could the most
god-like areas of human thought be about anything else?
2516
ilosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
A reaction: He says this jokingly, but it is obviously true. Philosophy requires extreme
imagination, and it also requires taking seriously possibilities that are dismissed by others. It
would be a catastrophe if we all dismissed the truth as self-evidently false.
2937
What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence [Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silen
A reaction: This is either a boring truism, or points towards some sort of verificationism
(where we can speak meaninglessly). Compare Ideas 7973 and 6870.
2626
A philosopher is outside any community of ideas [Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas; that is what makes
him a philosopher.
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Zettel [1950], 455)
A reaction: A bit surprising from the man who gave us 'language games' and 'private
language argument'.
20435
If philosophy could be summarised it would be pointless [Adorno]
Full Idea: Philosophy is in essence not summarisable. Otherwise it would be superfluous;
that most of it allows its to be summarised speaks against it.

11
A reaction: This seems contradict the Cicero quotation which I take to be the epigraph of
my collection of ideas. Adorno has a very 'continental' view, placing philosophy much closer
to poetry (Heidegger's later view) than to science. Not like advocacy either.
3269
If your life is to be meaningful as part of some large thing, the large thing must be
meaningful [Nagel]
Full Idea: Those seeking to give their lives meaning usually envision a role in something
larger than themselves, …but such a role can't confer significance unless that enterprise is
itself significant.
From: Thomas Nagel (The Absurd [1971], §3)
A reaction: Which correctly implies that this way of finding meaning for one's life is
doomed.
3242
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture can't skip it [Nagel]
Full Idea: Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will
never grow up.
From: Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], Intro)
A reaction: Can he really mean that a mature culture doesn't need philosophy?
7973
There is no longer anything on which there is nothing to say [Baudrillard]
Full Idea: There is no longer anything on which there is nothing to say.
From: Jean Baudrillard (The Intelligence of Evil [2004], p. 17)
A reaction: Compare Ideas 2937 and 6870. I'm not sure whether Baudrillard is referring to
the limits of philosophy, or merely to social taboos. I like Ansell Pearson's view: we should
attempt to discuss what appears to be undiscussable.
9786
Philosophers working like teams of scientists is absurd, yet isolation is hard [Cartwright,R]
Full Idea: The notion that philosophy can be done cooperatively, in the manner of
scientists or engineers engaged in a research project, seems to me absurd. And yet few
philosophers can survive in isolation.
From: Richard Cartwright (Intro to 'Philosophical Essays' [1987], xxi)
A reaction: This why Nietzsche said that philosophers were 'rare plants'.
3695
Philosophy is a priori if it is anything [Bonjour]
Full Idea: My conviction is that philosophy is a priori if it is anything.
From: Laurence Bonjour (In Defence of Pure Reason [1998], Pref)
A reaction: How about knowledge of a posteriori necessities, such as the length of a
metre, known by observation of the standard metre in Paris?
8220

12
Philosophy is in a perpetual state of digression [Deleuze/Guattari]
Full Idea: Philosophy can be seen as being in a perpetual state of digression.
Full Idea: What is your aim in philosophy? - To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], §309)
A reaction: Ridiculous. Trying to think about thought is not a pointless buzzing - it is an
attempt by humans to become like gods.
9810
The 'Tractatus' is a masterpiece of anti-philosophy [Badiou on Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: The 'Tractatus' is without doubt one of the masterpieces of anti-philosophy.
From: comment on Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [1921], p.16) by
Alain Badiou - Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little
A reaction: French philosophers do love making wicked remarks like that. It seems that
analysis is anti-philosophy, or 'little' philosophy in Badiou's parlance
From: comment on Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [1921], p.16) by
Alain Badiou - Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little
A reaction: French philosophers do love making wicked remarks like that. It seems that
analysis is anti-philosophy, or 'little' philosophy in Badiou's parlance.
19621
Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms [Cioran]
Full Idea: The philosopher's originality comes down to inventing terms.
From: E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 1 'Farewell')
A reaction: Analytic philosophers are just as obsessed with inventing terms as their
continental rivals. Kit Fine, for example. It can't be wrong to invent terms. Scientists do it
too.
19618
I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human
weakness [Cioran]
Full Idea: I turned away from philosophy when it became impossible to discover in Kant
any human weakness, any authentic accent of melancholy; in Kant and in all the
philosophers.
Irrelevant ‘Philosophy’
Ulrich de Balbian

13
Preface
The tools employed might appear appropriate, the reasoning sound and argumentation valid,
but the subject-matter, well one wonders what that has to do with philosophy, if anything at
all?
Viewing some of the topics one really wonders of the notion of philosophy is not stretched too
far?
So much that is passed off as philosophy itself or some kind of so-called interdisciplinary
issues really appear as irrelevant.

Topics from the grievance studies especially fall under this. It seems as if individuals have
personal issues, obsessions and psychological, social and cultural problems that they attempt
to interpret, perceive and treat as if they are philosophical and/or philosophically related.
I wish to suggest that those issues are treated as disciplines or subjects in their own right, for
example racism, feminism and gender studies, but not as ifthey have anything to do with
philosophy or should be treated in a philosophical manner. As if they inform us about
profound philosophical issues or concerns. Perhaps aspects of them can be dealt with as
psychological, anthropological, sociological, biological, political, etc, but dealing with them as
if they provide us with some kind of profound philosophical ideas and insights might be
stretching the notion of philosophy a bit too far.

I’ve wondered about the seeming dichotomy of materialism/physicalism and panpsychism and
if they are really the only possible consciousness explanatory positions?How about biologism?
That is as if all living biological matter or organisms are conscious, as well as that
consciousness (the many types of it) can be explained best by the nature of those phenomena.
A biologically restricted form or modification of pan-psychism?

14
CONTENTS
Part I
Irrelevant phenomena presented as ‘philosophy’
page 5 -
Part II
Possible relevant philosophical ideas?
page 68
Appendix
page 98

15
Part I
Anything is Philosophy?
1
When I was very young I already noticed that most people are totally inconsiderate and almost
completely unaare of the presence, existence, worlds, lives and feelings of other people, living
organisms and beings - unless they can get something out of them or use them in some way.
1.1
The reason for my decision to stay out of the way of most people
1.2
People are unable to see or think outside their own minute worlds. This is because of a
number of factors such as genotype, phenotype, personality-type, social and cultural reasons,
IQ, EQ, upbringing, age, gender and other factors.
1.21
This lack of interpersonal consideration and gross insensitivity to the presence, needs, worlds,
lives and existence of other living organisms, one finds not only in everyday existence and
interaction, but in all areas of human existence and behaviour.
1.22
For example in the sciences, humanities, arts, philosophy, religion, entertainment industry, the
world of sport, journalism, academia, etc. The inability to see outside your own minute world,
As if imprisoned by your own petty obsessions, needs, attitudes, opinions, concerns, IQ, EQ,
personal problems, motives, hidden agendas, -isms, insecurities, personality type,
embodiment, phenotype and upbringing, etc.
1.3
I have little interest in your status, bank account, education, socio-economic class, ethnicity,
gender, etc when I interact with you - as a living organism.
1.31
I approach living organisms with an open mind and allow them to create and define the
horizons of our interaction and the reality we constitute.

16
2

17
These inconsiderate, mentally blind, cogntivel, socially, intellectually, emotionally people are
the same onefinds more and more in the world of education and academia, for example
philosophy.
2.1
They attempt to restrict and reduce these institutions and philosophy to their own obsessions,
attitudes, beliefs, opinions, needs, psychologically, personal, social, cultural, national, ethnic
and gender priorities, concerns, agendas and problems.
2.2
Increasingly one finds these things introduced into academia and disciplines.
2.21
For example as attempts to introduice them into syllabus, teaching materials, subject-matter
and as topics of essays, seminars, conferences and theses.
3
My writing style. I recognized my style in that of Wittgenstein’s and what is said about his
style,not that that is what I wished for or intended.
His inability to and lack of interest in the writing of long essays, articles, chapters, etc.
A sentence or two and a paragraph or two would have to do to express that what one wants to
say. Also, much is assumed, not explicitly written.

This for many reasons. Anything else or more one considers irrelevant, that style suits that
what one wishes to do and say. More paragraphs and longer descriptions will require other
types of tools, reasoning and argumentation. Filling, techniques and things that are considered
to be irrelevant in my case and that what I wish to express, do and communicate.
4
The Western Tradition of Philosophy has no subject matter, except issues that constitute and
have been created in and by this tradition.
Increasingly this tradition occupies itself with interdisciplinary concerns and grievance issues.
4.1
To what extent these things are real philosophical problems is another matter. And, if they
should and could be dealt with by philosophy, its methods and paradigms need to be
questioned.
18
4.2
Just because someone with qualifications in philosophy or is labelled with the role of

19
philosopher, thinks, writes, talks about is associated with something, some issue or
(‘philosophical’ notion or issue) does not automatically transform those things into
philosophy.
4.3
Increasingly it appears to me that what passes for philosophy is speculation, with words,
notions, ideas and images - a kind of fiction.
4.31
Especially the topics of PhD’s and research and work by academics and professional
philosophers.
4.4
I can see the point of teaching the history of philosophical ideas. By sociological,
anthropological or cultural studies of philosophers investigated in their historical periods,
communities, societies and cultures.
4.5
But passing off grievance studies as philosophy and the investigation of critical theories about
every part of the human anatomy, their nature and what individuals can, may and cannot do
with them, or as groups, communities and sub-cultures, to perceive such things as philosophy?
Well it beats me.
4.6
One topic that might be of interest is that of Absolute Determinism and the Illusion of Free
Will.
4.61
Why is the idea of Absolute Determinism, on many levels for example that of the universe, or
particles and atoms, of interest?
How does the Illusion of Free Will operates?
4.62
Absolute Determinism and Lack of Free Will

Determinism from the 1 st and 3 rd person perspective as well as the universal point of
reference are dealt with. This is to show the absence of free will in the last perspective and the
illusion of it when seen from the first
Electronic two
copy perspectives.
available 'Free' choice is dealt with as well as
at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713
20
the absence of free will and the consequences of determinism for law and court judgements
are explored. So, what if any, is the place and the role of God in all this? Did s/he create

21
determinism and the potential for or any semblance of choice and free will? Or is the existence
of God, the fulfilling of prayer intentions and miracles impossible and redundant in a universe
of determinism (laws of nature etc) or universal determinism?
https://www.academia.edu/36752701/Absolute_Determinism_and_Lack_of_Free_Will
4.7
Another interesting topic is that concerning the techniques,aims, methods and methodologies
in philosophy.
Much of philosophy employs, is constituted by means of and proceeds by reasoning and
argmentation, but there are of course a whole range of other tools and techniques.
PHILOSOPHY – Aims, Methods, Rationale

In this meta-philosophical study I commence with an investigation of Wisdom. I then continue
with an exploration of the institutionalization of the subject and the professionalization of
those involved in it. This I contrast with original and creative philosophizing. In then sows that
philosophizing resembles and attempts to do theorizing. The 9 questions, etc of the Socratic
Method and details of the Philosophical Toolkit occur throughout different stages of theorizing
as one level and one dimension of it. Linked books are FREE for download.
1 Seeking, development and realization of wisdom 4
2 Institutionalization, Professionalization of ‘philosophy’ 5
3 Original and Creative Thinking Philosophizing 37
4 Philosophizing resembles Theorizing
38
(i) Socratic Method 41
(ii) Philosophical Toolkit 145
4.8
I read this, the usual nonsense and speculation passed off as philosophy, in a twitter post.
Is nature understandable in reason’s terms alone? Or is reason not a particular structure, s
shape of thought, that conditions the objects of its inquiry into its image? This is the point
Kant laid before us.
Reason constructs an image of the world it alone can process by means of its own resources
and this image imposes strong limits on what theoretical understanding can know about the
world itself.
this ...belief in reason as the only arbiter of knowledge, of this knowledge as the only way to
truth, and of truth as delimited by what reason can count as knowledge is b...advance.prison
imposed on experience.
There are many more ways of getting in touch with the real, the tweeter suggests..
The latter might refer to multi-sensory perception, but that is not the real issue here.
4.9 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713

22
My point is that philosophy is reduced to a play with words. Speculation about and by means
of the meanings of words.

23
In this case the word knowledge is used to do all sorts of things. It is connected to the word
understanding to create other ideas about the world, the real, that what humans can and cannot
perceive and relate to. But all these things are really merely playing with words and making
them do things.
Is that some form of general knowledge? Is it the same for primitive cavemen as for an
educated person today? Does a biologist, physicist, chemist, etc perceive the same things
when encountering certain objects, for example certain plants, a table etc? Has experience
anything to do with this? And what else is required? can these things be reduced to words
such as knowledge and understanding?
5
A lot of weight is placed on the ideas of knowledge, understanding, related and associated
words and notions in the above.
What exactly is meant by knowledge in those contexts? What are the functions they are
expected to fulfill?
Can that word really carry the weight of all data, information, insights and understanding
contained by the multiverse and our universe and constituting them, their past and future?
5.1
Obviously many other notions are involved, for example how this knowledge comes about, is
acquired and where it is held (in books, on internet, in the ‘mind’ of a living organism, its
functions, etc)?
5.2
What is the nature of the reality of a baby shark or octopus, an elderly racehorse, etc? How
does different features of knowledge play a part in the constitution of those different realities?
5.21
Is any kind of understanding involved? Are they related to any aspects of knowledge? How
are they related? What other notions that are essential to this are involved?
5.22
Are there similar and different features involved in the knowledge of different animals, of
different ages and genders?
5.23
Are their similarities that can be identified and generalized about?
5.24 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713

24
What are their functions in the constitutions of the different realities and the lifeworlds of

25
different organisms? Are they similar (Kantian like) or different?

6 Conceptual philosophy.
Most of philosophy is and can only be conceptual. Anything more or other is not philosophy.
Philosophers can only manipulate concepts, just like conceptual artist.
For example the infamous banana sold for 150,000$

The original banana itself, like Yoko Ono’s apple, will be thrown away or eaten and must be
regularly replaced. Just like the couscous Algerian city.
All what remains are the pages of instructions how to exhibit the articles.
My reason for mentioning the above is the following -

philosophers can only deal with concepts, like conceptual artists. In the case of the latter all
that what remains are the instructions accompanying the art works.
Therefore if philosophers wish to create something more tangible than ideas and play with
concepts, if they wish to manipulate anything, then they will become involved in performance
philosophy and /or experimental philosophy.

Meta-Philosophy) Experimental Philosophy, Theorizing, CMT,
CB or BT, CMA metaphors theories
(Meta-Philosophy) Theorizing about Philosophy (CMT, CB and CM) as an exercise inXPhi

The processes of theorizing are explored, Weick's Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Conceptual
Blending Theory and Conceptual Metaphor tool are described.
This Meta-Philosophy investigation of philosophy and philosophizing is an exercise in
Experimental Philosophy. The Empirical Generalization or Hypothesis arrived at states that:
Philosophy/izing is like or resembles the process/es of Theorizing.
Download
156 Views
(Meta-Philosophy) Exercise in Experimental Philosophy, CMT, BT, CMA

(Meta-Philosophy) Theorizing about
Electronic Philosophy
copy available at: (CMT, CB and CM) as an exercise inXPhi
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713
26
The processes of theorizing are explored, Weick's Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Conceptual
Blending Theory and Conceptual Metaphor tool are described. (XPHI exercise and CMT, BT
and CMA)
This Meta-Philosophy investigation of philosophy and philosophizing is an exercise in
Experimental Philosophy. The Empirical Generalization or Hypothesis arrived at states that:
Philosophy/izing is like or resembles the process/es of Theorizing.

At least here is a reason for the existence and related types of concrete philosophizing.
A few thoughts on the umbrella-notion of consciousness.
7.1
This notion has many explicit and implicit meanings associated with it.
7.2
It refers to and is associated with ‘phenomena’ in many dimensions, on many levels, multiple
contexts, all sorts of processes, many aspects of the human body, society, culture, genetics
and phenotypes are involved.
7.3
Very few if any of these features are as yet identified and conceptualized.
7.31
The few aspects that are identified and conceptualized are often, misleadingly, employed as
the only features, nature or meaning of consciousness.
7.4
All these and many other phenomena need to be identified, explored and investigated, defined
and conceptualized. So as to replace the one, general, misleading notion of consciousness.
7.5
Some thoughts on the meaning, use and functions of the words mind and mental.
7.51
If one were to look at the meaning of these words in English, French, German, Dutch,
Swedish, Afrikaans, etc one cannotcopy
Electronic but available
be struck by the many things that are referred to by
27
these words.

28
7.52
There is no one organ or thing like mental or mind, but all sorts of different function,s
activities, actions and behaviours - phenomena that reminds one of Ryle’s The Concept of
Mind.
Gilbert Ryle authored The Concept of Mind. He also followed ordinary language
philosophy. ... Arguing that the mind does not exist and therefore can't be the seat
of self, Ryle believed that self comes from behavior. We're all just a bundle of behaviors
caused by the physical workings of the body.
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Gilbert_Ryle
1 Also see the following as background reading -

2
3 MIND & CONSCIOUSNESS THINKING, SENSATION,
UNDERSTANDING, REASON, ARGUMENTATION,
EMOTIONS, EXPERIENCE, WISDOM
4 Do not talk about or use the misleading, umbrella-word like mind and consciousness, for mental processes
and phenomena
There is no thing such as Mind/Consciousness

The introduction presents merely roughly (as they undergo change all the time‭) ‬the
contemporary,‭‬ Anglo-Phone speculations (supposedly by means of the discourse of
philosophy and the socio-cultural practice of‭ philosophizing) about notions of consciousness
and mind. Do not talk about or use the misleading, umbrella-word like mind and mental..
Conscious Embodiment, EMBODIED CONSCIOUSNESS Mind, Consciousness and Body

We do not know how to think with or about these notions and others such as reality,
perception, space, time, etc…
ABSTRACT
In the following I will deal with the umbrella notions of mind, consciousness and body. The
contents is relevant, but of greater importance is the manner or method in which I deal with
these notions.
I first present as an illustration of my approach or method, how I have dealt with the notions
of intuition and intuiting.
One of the points I am trying to make is that: we do not know how to think about many things,
for example mind, consciousness, awareness, body, intuition, etc.
Therefore, I attempt to explore a number of things that we must investigate and deal with
before we use these and other notions,
Electronic copy as if theyat:are
available clearly defined terms, before we try to
29
use them to think and to think about anything, especially many levelled and multi- dimensional
issues and problems such as the workings of ‘the mind, the body, intuition, consciousness and

30
the relationship, if there are any, between these and other things. Then I suggest the initial
steps for a few very basic requirements before the exploration of a theory of embodied, living,
conscious tissues and a model for embodied (self-) consciousness research.
CONTENTS
Intuition 4
Mind 9
Consciousness 19
Embodied Consciousness 44
Human Body 52
Theory 61
Proposal for a Model of
Embodied Consciousness
Research 86
Self or Reflective Consciousness 90
LIMITS OF HUMAN SENSES, Consciousness and Awareness

My art makes the invisible visible, limits of human awareness. Human consciousness and
awareness is restricted by stereotypes and notions that cause philosophers and artists to exist
in the dark ages as far as their perception and understanding of human inner and outer senses
are concerned. Humans perceive 7 colors of rainbows with 16 to 37 or more colors, that are
perceived by other organisms, for example certain sea creatures.
Consciousness Part 3
In my opinion one should explore the origin and evolution of ‘consciousness’ in the context of
the origin and evolution of the universe, our galaxy, solar system, planet earth, life, life on
earth, human evolution, the nature and evolution of the human body, including the brain,
thinking, conceptualizing and talking of and ABOUT these things - as life on earth and the
human species, the human body and brain and ‘consciousness’ evolved in interaction with and
from all these and other phenomena.
There is a word/phrase for it so it so it exists - god, consciousness..

Many people imagine, mistakenly, that because a word or phrase exists the concept or
meaning of it exists and/or that it is true or make a true statement.
I do not say such phenomena do not exist, but that one should be aware of this common
fallacy in believing and thinking. Examples are God, pink unicorns, aliens, life on other
planets, miracles, fairies, religious
Electronic people are/must
copy available be peace loving, sincere,
31
altruistic, compassionate ...
There is not a (one) thing, process, cause or effect that we refer to or intend when we use the

32
word consciousness, instead, there are many things, processes, factors, causes, effects, etc
when this umbrella word and blanket term is employed. Of course it is possible to explore and
analyse what we mean and intend by this word in different contexts. Velmans gives examples
of how to define and not define this word
- http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/psychology/staff/velmans.php
7.6
Thoughts on (visual) art. It is basically marks on paper or a support.
The Philosophy behind the Multi-Sensory Art Gallery
What is the Philosophy behind the Multi-Sensory Art Gallery?, 2020

If one were to search research sites like Academia.Edu we will find many and books on
explorations of using different senses in traditional art galleries that used to concentrate only
on visual art, in other words seeing. Here are a few articles (also published as Ebooks and
paperbacks) by curators of a small, new art gallery Moorreesburg, Western Cape, South
Africa. https://independent.academia.edu/YoungDelton I provide links to them so that I do not
have to go into lengthy details of the contents of and ideas behind their paintings, installations,
performance and participatory and educational art projects. The articles contain many photos
of their work. https://independent.academia.edu/UlrichdeBalbian OPEN BOOK Gallery for
the visually impaired20200718 105383 p74jby OPENED BOOK. ART GALLERY MINDS
Art Gallery of All (not only visual) Senses Exercises in and facilitating the direct, active(not
merely passive or viewing) participating (as myself , first person) in the sharing of the
(undergoing as first person) of sensory experiences (taste, touch, smell, movement, etc) of/by
another.
7.61
https://www.academia.edu/32917441/WHAT_IS_ART
Meta-art: thinking about art praxis, reflecting on art practice

Thinking about art praxis, reflecting on the socio-cultural practices of art by painting
post-minimalist, 21st Century process art, post-modern art
Making the invisible, what cannot be said verbally, visually etc visible
My art makes the invisible visible

That what cannot be said might be shown . Ludwig Wittgenstein (philosopher,
mathematician).
My art makes visible that what is invisible. That what might be (verbally) ineffable might be
shown (revealed, made effable visually
Electronic and through
copy available music).
33
My work could be labelled many things such as figurative, non-figurative, symbolic,
expressionistic, impressionistic, modernism, post-modernism, post-minimalism, etc. In fact it

34
shows (the processes and results of) making marks on paper (canvas, board, carton or
whatever support is used).
Making the verbally ineffable (‘invisible) ‘visible’, effable, perceptible (reveal, express or
show it) visually, audibly, mathematically and/or by sight, touch, smell, taste, movement etc.
What cannot be said can be visually/musically shown
My art makes the invisible visible

That what cannot be said might be shown . Ludwig Wittgenstein (philosopher,
mathematician).
My art makes visible that what is invisible. That what might be (verbally) ineffable might be
shown (revealed, made effable visually and through music).
My work could be labelled many things such as figurative, non-figurative, symbolic,
expressionistic, impressionistic, modernism, post-modernism, post-minimalism, etc. In fact it
shows (the processes and results of) making marks on paper (canvas, board, carton or
whatever support is used).
Letter to a friend : ON Creative Thinking and Intuition

Letter to a friend about creative thinking and intuition (in art, visual art with examples,
painting, writing, philosophy, science, Einstein, etc).
WHAT IS ART (classificatory disputes, aesthetic judgements, contemporary art
WHAT IS ART (classificatory disputes, aesthetic judgements, contemporary art

The (un)importance of art theory -aesthetics and philosophy of art And Art Speak and artist's
statement creating the context to interact with your art
Abstract
Has art theory any function and any importance? A function and importance for who? For the
practising artist, theorists, writers on art?
Art speak and its place in art theory, art criticism and artists’ statement. - Many tools to
create an intersubjective and universal frame of reference to make sense of any art exist., for
example art history, labels such as expressionism, impressionism, modern art, contemporary
art, Fine art, Visual Arts, Northern Baroque Art, minimalist, post-minimalist, anti-art,
anti-anti-art, New Aesthetics, new media, slow art movement, etc and ‘art speak” .
https://www.academia.edu/35516553/The_un_importance_of_art_theory_aesthetics_and_phil
osophy_of_art_And_Art_Speak_and_artists_statement_creating_the_context_to_interact_with
_your_artt
When I read philosophy this is what happens. Here is an example of Fichte on Kant.
35
What is meant here by -
representations,
producing representations,

36
how and where are they produced,
reason,
what are the laws employed by reason,
where do you get that idea from that reason uses laws,
what is this necessity,
where do you get this idea from,
meaning of this - brought about by this necessity,
how does this work,
where and how does this occur,
how do these laws produce objective validity,
what is meant by objective validity/

Only when these notions and assumptions are clarified will these words make sense to me
and can I read this text.
9
How much of “Western” (people will know what I mean, although I see others now object to
this term for several reason. For example, its origins are not from Western countries, but what
were or now are non-western countries, individuals that are included are not western, or
non-western ideas and people’s ideas are included, that there is only philosophy and not
western, Chinese, etc philosophy. Many of these thoughts appear to be me social, cultural,
sociological and anthropological than philosophical, but they are presented as if they have or
should have an effect on or are related to philosophyand Western philosophy) philosophy
today is the result of academia, professionalization,
Electronic teaching, studies, research, new subjects,
copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713
37
interdisciplinary fields, philosophies of every notion and everything imaginable? The
subject-matter, the problems, terms, endless splitting of notions to devise new terms, etc, often

38
appear to have little to do with philosophy.

One driving force appear to be the thought that when something is presented as philosophy,
then it is serious, scientific, meaningful, true, valid, worthy of existence, to be studied, taught,
communicated. Another assumption is that philosophy is some form of ‘science’. Making
something’academic’, by the teaching, study, professionalization of it, in this case by relating
it to ‘philosophy’, gives it legitimacy, legitimacy to exist, to exist in academic and related
institutions. Then it is assumed to be worthwhile, valid, meaningful, valued, money can be
associated with it, knowledge, validity, power bestowed on it and many other serious social
and cultural aims, objectives and purposes.

These are the functions of the institutionalization of philosophy and it association with
educational and academic institutions, professions, activities, communities, titles, etc.

Trying to make things philosophy, philosophical and trying to make issues, ideas,
speculations, activities, people, positions, etc, important by associating them with philosophy,
philosophically related institutions, activities, notions, positions and philosophizing.
10
Increasingly I am convinced that philosophy is speculation. Speculation by means of notions.
A notion is focussed on and than through explorations associated notions are identified,
revealed, uncovered and their connections employed to create patterns, models, theories and
sets of ideas.
10.1
To execute this approach philosophy has available all sorts of tools. I won’t list them again as
I already posted a link to my book dealing with these tools, techniques, methods and
approaches here -
https://www.academia.edu/35117404/PHILOSOPHY_Aims_Methods_Rationale
10.2
Philosophizing basically is theorizing. Different aspects of the processes, contexts,
dimensions, levels and stages of theorizing is employed.
Philosophizing is part of the Process/es of Theorizing

Philosophizing is part of the Process/es of Theorizing An illustration (by means of a number of ... more
10.3
Increasingly I see that philosophy consists of, is and employs speculation. This is why it is
suggested that it is and could be done in the isolation of an ivory tower.
This is also why everyone thinks that they can and do philosophy and are philosophers.
39
As suggested above, it consists of identifying words or notions that appear to be
interconnected and imply each other.

40
In this manner any and every issues and subject can be speculated about.
Some individuals may do this in more sophisticated ways, while others cannot hide or disguise
their opinions and attitudes, biases, assumptions and pre-suppositions.
They will also commit all sorts of errors in thinking, reasoning and argumentation when
compared to ‘professionals’, who studied, practised and are skilled in employing these tools.
10.4
Then there are individual styles of thinking, expression and description, for example Platonic,
Socratic, Humean, Kantian, Husserlian, analytic thinkers, the Continentals, the Tractatus and
P I.
11
So much for the tools, the techniques, the methods of philosophy and the doing of
philosophizing.
We have also seen that anything can be treated as subject-matter or objects of philosophy or
philosophical investigation. In fact any word, any notion or idea can be explored from many
different philosophical points of view or be investigated from all sorts of philosophical
approaches.
Increasingly grievance issues about gender, race, sex and other personal, interpersonal,
gender, ethnic notions and ideas are perceived as philosophical relevant and important.
The treatment of such things are given the status of critical theories - and some form of -ism or
ideology is always involved.

Also, increasingly popular are the involvement of philosophy and philosophers in inter- and
multi- disciplinary studies. How much philosophy is involved and what the role and function
of philosophy and philosophizing in such studies are should also be questioned.

Popular among these multi- and inter-disciplinary studies are a number of sciences, for
example physics, neurosciences, cognitive sciences, biology as well as social sciences and
arts, humanities and education.

I fail to see the relevance of philosophy in all of this and it seems as the label philosophy are
merely given to all sorts of things that have little to do with philosophy and that could be done
by other disciplines and specialists or no specific discipline.
What are the -

aims,
the objectives,
the purposes
and the functions
41
of the doing of philosophy?

42
And what are the contributions,if any at all, that are unique to the involvement of philosophy
in these or any studies and investigations?

I doubt that there are any, for example in the so-called body-mind problem or the fake
problems associated with the many different meanings of the umbrella-notion consciousness.
The many meanings, processes, phenomena, etc that are involved with phenomena associated
with this notion need to be identified and investigated - and by relevant disciplines, not
speculative philosophizing.
11.1
To bombard someone with technical terms is not philosophy, not convincing or doing
philosophizing and is unnecessary. Many philosophers such as Nietzsche, Plato, Socrates, the
later Wittgenstein and others found that unnecessary.

Also, the use of such terms referring to or expressing labels of different types of metaphysics,
ontologies, epistemologies, ethics, aesthetics, political positions, theologies, grievance issues
and related critical theories and cancellations... such labels and labels about labels,
philosophical differentiations, positions and -isms - really is unnecessary to the doing of
philosophy, it is not philosophizing and are irrelevant.

At most they express pseudo-metaphilosophy or amateur attempts at executing very bad,
unconvincing and uninformed meta-philosophy.

One finds such things on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and other social media. Employed by
people who wish to appear witty, clever, impress others and who seem to have nothing else to
do and cannot think of something better to do and who have odd ideas of, opinions about and
attitudes concerning philosophy, the doing of philosophy and philosophizing.

Philosophy is not truth sayings, witticisms or short and succinct plays with words or clever
mental gymnastics or showing off with words or games and gymnastics with concepts and
ideas.
Anyone doing such things have little idea about the aims, objectives, purposes and functions
of the doing of philosophy and philosophizing.

By doing such things they reveal more about themselves, their own attitudes, opinions, -isms,
biases, thinking, preferences, pre-suppositions, level of development and lack of
understanding of philosophy than that they express anything philosophically relevant,
meaningful, essential or necessary.
12
I saw a question on social media - why do philosophers not write about the work of other
philosophers?
Or, why does a philosopher not give the best interpretation or description of the work of
43
another philosopher?
I suggested this answer. A philosopher reads, views and interprets the work of another by

44
assimilation.
When he reads the work of another philosopher he perceives it in terms of his own
philosophical ideas, thoughts, thinking, approach and system, his own attitudes,
pre-suppositions, approach and philosophy.

I am talking about original- and creative thinking philosophers who think in original ways. I
do not refer to scholars, professionals and academic thinkers whose life and work consists of
teaching, reading and talking about the work of others.

I explored these two socio-cultural practices and roles that lie on opposite poles of the
continuum of the doing of philosophy.
I wrote about the above here -

Philosophical Insights Original vs Factual Derivative: (original, creative vs academic, factual
ideas)
ideas)
ideas)
ideas)
It will be noticed that original- and creative-thinkers in the socio-cultural practice of
philosophy present us with their own, new and original ideas and patterns, sets or models of
such ideas. In the case of original/creative-thinkers these things will be ‘intuitive’ or ‘devised’
by the the individual himself while in the case of lesser original- and creative-thinkers these
things (ideas, insights, tools, techniques, the ways they are arrived at or being constituted,
employed to devise or express sets of new ideas or insights or models) will be obtained from
the ideas, insights, statements, hypotheses and theories of other thinkers. The latter employs
insights and ideas of others as ‘facts or factual ideas’ as ‘truths’ so as to argue for, establish,
validate and legitimize their own derivative ideas resembling a kind of empirical research and
the presentation of data in lectures and conferences and it is far removed from the approach of
original thinkers.
Language: English
Manuscripts of most of my 100 books can be downloaded for FREE
at https://independent.academia.edu... where my work is in the top 0.5% of about 1 million
researchers.
And here
45
Academic Philosophy = Death: Long Live Philosophizing

Academic Philosophy = Death: Long Live Philosophizing

46
Philosophy is the making of theories, badly or occasionally better, with sets of ideas that
resembles fiction, poetry and literature and theology in certain ways in so far as the author
uses his imagination and intuition to produce a set of ideas that may or may not attempt to
refer to and/or represent or reflect and create a certain reality or life-worlds. It differs from
fiction and is relatively unique in so far as it employs reasoning, argumentation and other
philosophical tools. It seems as if philosophy is self-incestuous (verbal masturbation),
conceptual games with and about concepts using propositions, reasoning and argumentation to
make assertions about other concepts (as if the lion is trying to speak, attempting to convey to
us what he thinks and how he experiences his life-world), and thereby produce insular,
enclosed, self-referential, circular systems of ideas.

Dealing with issues about the impossibility of creating metaphysics, epistemology and
ontology.
Manuscripts of most of my 100 books can be downloaded for FREE at Ulrich de Balbian
where my work is in the top 0.5% of about 1 million researchers.

Academic, derivative philosophy by scholars and teachers studying and teaching the work and
ideas of other philosophers and contrived academic issues are irrelevant and equates with
death. Original-, creative-thinking and ideas by philosophers are and always will be alive.
SEEKING PHILOSOPHY BY WORDS 1 ART and META-ART

ABSTRACT One increasingly reads about different aspects of the death of philosophy. One reason o... more
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13
A few words on an article and related articles and books I read. I refrain from mentioning
the name of the individual Electronic
as I do notcopywish to waste
available my time on criticism of others.
47
I found so many weak points, errors of thinking and reasoning in them and I do not wish
to embarrass the person, especially as he and his thoughts on this subject were praised by
many.
The work was on consciousness. A notion, topic and issue that are very popular, again, in
my time and without one single solution, -ism, approach or solution.

The author suggested that he found the absolute and perfect solution to what
consciousness is, how it functions and what it is.

He swings between treating it as some thing in certain contexts and as a notion or an idea
in others.
He commences by giving us a definition of consciousness. Then he tell us now he is going
to tell us what consciousness is and what it is not. What he in fact doe sis re-stating the
definition, by a sort of conceptual exploration or analysis. But one that is badly executed
and not at all clear.
He presents us with notions of consciousness that he disagrees with.

There are many other issues, errors and misleading, badly executed descriptions through
the entire article.

To be clear about them and why I object to them I would need to quote them and mention
the article, but I do not wish to embarrass the author, who sees himself as and is
perceived as a philosopher and important academic figure.
14
In many ways philosophy, philosophical writing and descriptions resemble and appear
like fiction, like writing produced in different genres of literature.
14.1
Here are ideas from two philosophers -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze
Where does he get these ideas, the speculations with and about these ideas?

48
Metaphysics
Deleuze's main philosophical project in the works he wrote prior to his collaborations with
Guattari can be summarized as an inversion of the traditional metaphysical relationship
between identity and difference. Traditionally, difference is seen as derivative from identity:
e.g., to say that "X is different from Y" assumes some X and Y with at least relatively stable
identities (as in Plato's forms). To the contrary, Deleuze claims that all identities are effects
of
difference. Identities are neither logically nor metaphysically prior to difference, Deleuze
argues, "given
genus. [33] Thatthat
is,there existare
not only differences of nature
no two things ever between
the same,things of the same
the categories we use to
"
individuals identify
in the first place derive from differences. Apparent identities such as "X" are
composed of endless series of differences, where "X" = "the difference between x and x" =
"the difference between...", and so forth. Difference, in other words, goes all the way down.
To confront reality honestly, Deleuze argues, we must grasp beings exactly as they are, and
concepts of identity (forms, categories, resemblances, unities of apperception, predicates,
etc.)
fail to attain what he calls "difference in itself." "If philosophy has a positive and direct
relation to things, it is only insofar as ...

Or another example - What is the aim with these games with the words being used? Do they
serve any purpose apart from a personal one?

Like Kant, Deleuze considers traditional notions of space and time as unifying forms
imposed
by the subject. He therefore concludes that pure difference is non-spatio-temporal; it is an
idea, what[35]
abstract.") Deleuze calls
While "the virtual".
Deleuze's virtual(The
ideascoinage refers resemble
superficially to Proust'sPlato's
definition
formsofand
what is
constant in both
ideas of pure the past
Kant's
reason, theyand
arethe
notpresent:
originals"real withoutnor
or models, being
do actual, ideal without
they transcend being
possible
experience; instead they are the conditions of actual experience, the internal difference
in
itself. "The concept they [the conditions] form is identical to its [36] A Deleuzean
object."
or concept of difference is therefore not a wraith-like abstraction of an experienced idea thing, it
is
a real system of differential relations that creates actual spaces, times, and [37]
sensations.
Or another one -
Deleuze's unusual metaphysics entails an equally atypical epistemology, or what he calls a
transformation of "the image of thought". According to Deleuze, the traditional image of
thought, found in philosophers such as Aristotle, René Descartes, and Edmund Husserl,
misconceives of thinking as a mostly unproblematic business. Truth may be hard to
discover—it may require a life of pure theorizing, or rigorous computation, or systematic
doubt—but thinking is able, at least in principle, to correctly grasp facts, forms, ideas, etc. It
may be practically impossible to attain a God's-eye, neutral point of view, but that is the
ideal
to approximate: a disinterested pursuit that results in a determinate, fixed truth; an orderly
extension of common sense. Deleuze rejects this view as papering over the metaphysical
flux,
instead claiming that genuine
Electronic thinking
copy available is a violent confrontation with reality, an involuntary
49
Or an example of speculations with words to produce more fiction by another philosopher -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Williams#Critique_of_utilitarianism
Williams set out the case against utilitarianism – a consequentialist position the simplest
version of which is that actions are right only insofar as they promote the greatest happiness
of
the greatest number – in Utilitarianism: For and Against (1973) with J. J. C. Smart. One of
the book's thought experiments involves Jim,
Williams argued that there are only internal reasons for action:
Why does he feel it necessary to execute these speculations? What are their aims, what are
their functions, what is his purpose with their execution?
In his final completed book, Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy (2002),
Williams
between the demand for truth and the doubt that any such thing [74]
identifies the two basic values of truth as accuracy and sincerity, and tries to address the gulf
exists.
The debt to Friedrich Nietzsche is clear, most obviously in the adoption of a genealogical
method as a tool of explanation and critique. Although part of Williams's intention was to
attack those he felt denied the value of truth,

Look how philosophers fabricate these so-called methods or tools and how other
philosophers
then get carried away by devising their own variations of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse
The term Discourse (L. discursus,
spoken [1] In semantics
“running andtodiscourse
and fro”)analysis,
identifies and describes
a discourse is a written and
communications.
generalization of conversation. conceptual
In a field of enquiry and social practice, the discourse is
the
vocabulary (codifieddiscourse,
discourse, religious [2] In the of
language)etfor investigation the subject,
works e.g. legal discourse,
of the philosopher Michel
medical
cetera. Foucault, [3]
a discourse is “an entity of sequences, of signs, in that they are enouncements
(énoncés).”
In philosophy, genealogy is a historical technique in which one questions the commonly
understood emergence of various philosophical and social beliefs by attempting to account
for
the scope, breadth or totality of discourse, thus extending the possibility of analysis, as
opposed to the Marxist use of the term ideology to explain the totality of historical discourse
within the time period in question by focusing on a singular or dominant discourse
(ideology).
Moreover, a genealogy often attempts to look beyond the discourse in question toward the
conditions of their possibility (particularly in Foucault's genealogies). It has been developed
as
located in its changing constitutive [1] This entails not just documenting its
continuation
setting. of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. For example, tracking the lineages of a
changing
concept such
meaning as 'globalization'
(etymology) can bebasis
but the social called a 'genealogy'
of its to the extent that the concept is
changing meaning.
50
suppositions. For example on truth or history.

Kant plays the same games with the notion of transcendental as shown here -In modern
philosophy, Immanuel Kant introduced a new term, transcendental, thus instituting a new,
third
meaning. In his theory of knowledge, this concept is concerned with the condition of
possibility of knowledge itself. He also opposed the term transcendental to the
term transcendent, the latter meaning "that which goes beyond" (transcends) any possible
knowledge of a human being.[3][4] For him transcendental meant knowledge about our
cognitive faculty with regard to how objects are possible a priori. "I call all
knowledge transcendental if it is occupied, not with objects, but with the way that we can
possibly know objects even before we experience them."[5] Therefore, metaphysics, as a
fundamental and universal theory, turns out to be an epistemology. Transcendental
philosophy, consequently, is not considered a traditional ontological form of metaphysics.
Kant also equated
cognition. transcendental
[6] Something with that ifwhich
is transcendental is "...in
it plays a rolerespect
in the of
waytheinsubject's
which thefaculty of
"
"constitutes" mind and makes it possible for us to experience them as objects in the first
objects
place. Ordinary knowledge is knowledge of objects; transcendental knowledge is knowledge
of how it is possible for us to experience those objects as objects. This is based on Kant's
acceptance of David Hume's argument that certain general features of objects (e.g.
persistence, causal relationships) cannot be derived from the sense imp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(philosophy)
Try to make sense out of contortions Foucault get himself involved in by his thinking here,
making assumptions about notions or things,such as truth, history, etc and then proceeding
by
denying that what he has assumed.

The practice of genealogy is also closely linked to what Foucault called the "archeological
method:"
In short, it seems that from the empirical observability for us of an ensemble to its historical
acceptability, to the very period of time in which it is actually observable, the analysis goes
by
way of the knowledge-power nexus, supporting it, recouping it at the point where it is
accepted, moving toward what makes it acceptable, of course, not in general, but only where
it is accepted. This is what can be characterized as recouping it in its positivity. Here, then, is
a type of procedure, which, unconcerned with legitimizing and consequently excluding the
fundamental
interplay. Letpoint ofthat
us say viewthis
of is,
theapproximately,
law, runs through
the the cycle of positivity
archaeological [7]
by proceeding
level [of
from
analysis].
the fact of acceptance to the system of acceptability analyzed through the knowledge-power
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy_(philosophy)#Foucault
What are the aims and functions with these plays with words? What purpose,if any do
they
51
execution.
https://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/meta/topics.htm#as-li
Philosophy as literature
Are there perspectives that make it fruitful to see philosophy as a sub-genre of literature?
If philosophy is non-cognitive, does it then acquire the same value and epistemic
standing as literature (whatever those are)? Why or why not?

If philosophy is non-cognitive, does it then acquire the same value and epistemic
standing as literature (whatever those are)? Why or why not?

If we read the history of philosophy non-immanently as the reflection of personality, how
could we distinguish philosophy and literature?

Are theories (philosophical and scientific) and literary plots variations on a single
structure, the story? What would a general theory of stories look like, and how would it
force us to reinterpret the nature and history of philosophy?
 Do great works of philosophy and of literature survive "the test of time" for different
reasons? How do works of each kind become "dated" and primarily of historical interest?
 Can we interpret Kierkegaard's "authorship" (his term), with its many pseudonyms and
histrionics, as a gigantic work of literature? What is gained and lost by such a reading?
 Can we interpret Platonic dialogues as dramas? What is gained and lost by such a reading?
 Are philosophy and literature different (insofar as they are different) primarily in
genre or primarily in substance?
 Was Aristotle (in the Poetics) right to locate the difference in literature's use of
particulars and philosophy's use of universals? What similarities does such a theory
recognize or permit?
and
Philosophy as literature
Are there perspectives that make it fruitful to see philosophy as a sub-genre of literature?
See for example:

Collingwood, section of Essay on Philosophical Method
 Lewis White Beck, essay, "Philosophy as Literature"


52
 Juan Marias, Philosophy as Dramatic Theory
 Kenneth Burke, essay, "Dramatistic Introduction to Kant" (mostly on Kant's ethics)

 If philosophy is non-cognitive, does it then acquire the same value and epistemic standing
as literature (whatever those are)? Why or why not?
 If we read the history of philosophy non-immanently as the reflection of personality, how
could we distinguish philosophy and literature?
 Are theories (philosophical and scientific) and literary plots variations on a single structure,
the story? What would a general theory of stories look like, and how would it force us to
reinterpret the nature and history of philosophy?
 Do great works of philosophy and of literature survive "the test of time" for different
reasons? How do works of each kind become "dated" and primarily of historical interest?
 Can we interpret Kierkegaard's "authorship" (his term), with its many pseudonyms and
histrionics, as a gigantic work of literature? What is gained and lost by such a reading?
 Can we interpret Platonic dialogues as dramas? What is gained and lost by such a reading?
 Are philosophy and literature different (insofar as they are different) primarily in genre or
primarily in substance?
 Was Aristotle (in the Poetics) right to locate the difference in literature's use of
particulars and philosophy's use of universals? What similarities does such a theory
recognize or permit?

1Does philosophy and literature have different aims, objectives, purposes and functions?
2
3Do they realize different and certain similar aims and functions by the same methods
and by some different techniques?
4
5What are the aims, the objectives, purpose and functions of these disciplines or socio
and cultural practices?
6
15
So much of what is done in the name of philosophy, the doing of philosophy, are irrelevant
and unnecessary playing with words by individuals trying to clarify and sort out their own
misleading notions of certain words.

They set out having some notion or contradictory and misleading and conflated notions of an
idea, for example truth, history, etc.

Then they attempt to dissect those contradictory notions and bracket them by denying them,
by
replacing them or other strategies.

All this is unnecessary if the individual did not misleadingly employ certain words. This leads
into all sorts of unnecessary usages of concepts. The results seem like and are mistakenly
interpreted as profound philosophical insights.

A lot of what is passed off as philosophy (especially in Continental traditions? For example
53
Kant, Hegel et al and French writers from the last century) consists of this Wittgensteinian
disease.

54
16
I saw a post on Twitter by John Altmann, that he is very impressed with.
It concerns the paste from a book where the writer contrasts mysticism and philosophy
The individual obviously has no idea at all about mysticism.

He makes all sorts of statements about the nature, meaning and function of mysticism. All
comments are positive. Mysticism according to him reveals all truth and meaning directly.
He then makes statements about the nature, meaning, functions, aims and purposes of
philosophy.
Philosophy according to him deals only with the surface of things and some weird notion of
ontology.
I replied to the post that I have written more than 100 texts on many aspects of philosophy,
both in books, research papers (at SSRN where I am in the top 10%)as well as here
www.academic.edu/ulrich debalbian where I am often in the top 0.1% of more than 1 million
researchers.
I give my work for free download on that site.

The points of my post were -
the author of that book has no idea at all what mysticism is about - and he expresses a lot of
irrelevant and ridiculous notions that have nothing to do with mysticism at all.
He obviously never read even one of the basic texts in or of mysticism and he has no idea of
what any famous or other mystics expressed.
I wrote about mysticism in many articles and in this book -
https://www.amazon.com/Theorizing-mystical-approach-Ulrich-Balbian/dp/1726346501
As well as in this free download, on many mystics from different religious traditions -
https://www.academia.edu/30704161/NON_PHILOSOPHY_OF_THE_ONE_Turning_away_
from_Philosophy_of_Being
And on Plotinus here -
Philosophy of being - Nonphilosophy of the one

An exploration of the philosophical and mystical ideas of Plotinus. So as to show that
underneath all traditional Western philosophy of being their lies a non-philosophy of
'the one'. The One with whom
Electronicmystics seekat:unification
copy available or to be united with (also know
55
as realization of the one real self, unity with the Sufi Beloved, buddha-mind, the
absolute truth, the foundation or ground of all etc).

56
As a result of my reply Altmann blocked me on Twitter
The only reason why I replied is,

I am very serious about philosophy and mysticism and have spent most of my life as a solitary
hermit doing and practising them.

Those socio-cultural practices are my life, passion, they give meaning to my existence, the
define and constitute my self, my personality-type, my reality and life world.

I am not involved with them, or art, for financial reasons, fame or any external motives. I am
doing them for personal, not social, cultural, academic or institutional(ized) reasons. I am
involved in them because of my genotype, phenotype, personality-type and embodiment.
17
Most what is passed off as if it is philosophy in contemporary doctorates, conferences,
journals, on social media such as Twitter or Facebook honestly do not strike me as having any
relevance to serious philosophy. Or as serious, crucial and essential topics, issues, questions
or problems in the subject.

To me they seem like contrived issues, playing with words and confusions with and about
words, ideas and notions.

So many of those things are responses to the way another person used words, or what they are
thought to have intended by using certain notions. In other words quibbling and going on
about what another individual is alleged to have said, implied or intended.

But, most of what are presented as philosophical insights in speeches and articles are as
irrelevant to the subject as they deal with grievance issues and/ or issues that really form part
of the subject-matter of other disciplines and socio-cultural practices.

They are dealt with or presented as if they are philosophical issues, problems or questions
because the individual misunderstood them. This is because they do not have sufficient and
appropriate information and understanding of those disciplines and subject-matter or domains.

Then they perceive, misleadingly interpret and present some confusion of their own as if it is a
philosophical problem. While in fact it is nothing else but their own conceptual confusions and
an inadequate or misunderstanding of issues in another discipline or are of knowledge.

In fact there are very few real philosophical issues, questions or problems, if other contexts,
discourses and socio-cultural practices were dealt with in an appropriate, informed and
specialized manner.
All this philosophy of art, sciences, religion, law, morality, politics, et are mere fanciful and
unnecessary pretence that could be dealt with in common sense and informed ways by the
discourses and disciplines themselves.

57
18

58
In the light of Absolute Determinism, how can ethics and morality be taken seriously?LET'S
FAKE MORALITY and ETHICS (the pretence of ethics and morality in philosophy
and life)
and
Absolute Determinism and Lack of Free Will

Determinism from the 1 St and 3 rd person perspective as well as the universal point of
reference are dealt with. This is to show the absence of free will in the last perspective and the
illusion of it when seen from the first two perspectives. 'Free' choice is dealt with as well as
the absence of free will and the consequences of determinism for law and court judgements
are explored. So, what if any, is the place and the role of God in all this? Did s/he create
determinism and the potential for or any semblance of choice and free will? Or is the existence
of God, the fulfilling of prayer intentions and miracles impossible and redundant in a universe
of determinism (laws of nature etc) or universal determinism?
19
There is no such thing as time -all we encounter are the results of our standards of and tools
for the m Human beings exist and are conscious only in the present (moment). They do not
exist, cannot perceive (feel, imagine, hear, see, view, touch, etc) and cannot be conscious in
the past or the future. Time and the imagining of time passing is a human fabrication and
projection. Neither the past nor the future exist except in the imagination of human beings.
Humans mistake devices, inventions and ways of and for measuring and counting longer or
shorter periods of time for example in seconds, minutes, hours, years, decades, centuries, etc
for time itself. They also imagine that the past exists because of thoughts, images, feelings, etc
they have in the present-the only moment when any of these occur, can occur and is possible.
They do similar things, for example by planning, having hopes, motives, intentions, wishes,
etc that what is not yet, that what does not yet exist and have not yet been realized or
occurred. On the basis of these things they imagine and even believe that there exist or is
something such as 'the future'. The past and the past for you or for me are mere imagination
and projections. The same goes for the future-we constitute, fabricate and imagine it to exist
here and now in the present moment. It is on the basis of these propositions that I state that
time does not exist, that there is no past or future that exist for or in human perception and
consciousness. All or anything that is or exist for human beings, for and in human perception
and consciousness exist only in the present moment-human perception, thinking, feelings,
imagining and consciousness can and do only function or operate in this present moment.
Human perception, thinking, imagining and consciousness cannot operate in the past or in the
future. To imagine otherwise is mere illusion and self-deception. To imagine that anything in
the future exists or is real is an illusion, self-deception and a play with one's imagination. For
example to try and imagine here and now my life after my death is impossible, meaningless
and not reality.

measurement of time .
TIME does not exist - only in human imagination
20
59
There is no such thing as space, all we encounter are human, anthropocentered tools for the
measurement and description of space.

60
21
There is a word/phrase for it so it so it exists - god,
consciousness..
Many people imagine, mistakenly, that because a word or phrase exists the concept or
meaning of it exists and/or that it is true or make a true statement.
I do not say such phenomena do not exist, but that one should be aware of this common
fallacy in believing and thinking. Examples are God, pink unicorns, aliens, life on other
planets, miracles, fairies, religious people are/must be peace loving, sincere,
altruistic, compassionate ...
There is not a (one) thing, process, cause or effect that we refer to or intend when we use the
word consciousness, instead, there are many things, processes, factors, causes, effects, etc
when this umbrella word and blanket term is employed. Of course it is possible to explore and
analyse what we mean and intend by this word in different contexts. Velmans gives examples
of how to define and not define this word
- http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/psychology/staff/velmans.php
22
I saw a post on Twitter by someone talking about the Foundations of Metaphysics of Plato. I
would like to know where Plato uses those terms and what he meant by them. By merely
labelling someone’s ideas or thoughts by some technical philosophical terms does not mean
that individual actually used to those terms, that he ever intended them or that he thought in
terms of them.
Is it really necessary to employ technical terms or to think in terms of such academically
contrived words to do or to be able to do philosophy?
23
Someone posted this -
How are people still doing epistemology?
Believe tre things, dont believe false things.
Next question.
23.1
This sort of sums up philosophy. Of course there are stories about belief, justifiable belief,
verifiability, falsifiablity, what is truth, what is meant by truth, etc
23.2
My cynical response -
How can people still think they do philosophy?

61
Employ words in meaningful ways so you don’t become involved in or create conceptual
confusions that you try to disentangle and escape from and try to dissolve by speculative
theories and opinions presented as ridiculous ideas about meta-physics, onto-logies,

62
moral-isms, ethical attitudes and other -isms.
24
Individuals can suddenly be overcome by words, concepts and ideas they use all the time
without having any profound problems and without them creating severe issues, anxieties and
self-inspection.
These problems turn them into thinking about those concepts and cause them to think,
mistakenly, that what they do is philosophizing and what they are at that moment is being a
philosopher.
Here are some of these ordinary, everyday words that are turned into seemingly profound
philosophical problems concerning metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, ethics, etc
Cause, causes, reasons, intentions and intentionality, working class, capitalism, discourse,
dialogue, judgements (Kant), mind, consciousness, reality, the world, seeing, perception,
thinking, determinism, free will, choice, history, spirit, etc, etc.
Part II
Possible relevant philosophical ideas.
1
One of the problems with original and creative philosophizing is that the problems, the
questions, the issues do not exist beforehand - until you have created them.
You must conceive of them at the same time as you think them and simultaneously grasp the
words, ideas or notions by means of which you wish to think them, conceive them,
conceptualize and imagine them.
2
Another problem is the nature of the tools to be employed. There exist many philosophical
tools, methods and techniques that copy

Electronic could be employed.
available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713
63
But, they are accompanied by problems and/or using them lead to the creation of all sorts of
unnecessary problems. For example the genealogy tool employed by Williams and Foucault

64
and referred to by Nietzsche. The same goes for most other tools and techniques.
3 What are suitable problems and meaningful issues that could become subjects of the doing
of philosophy?
Why would a philosopher be able to be an expert in a specialized discipline or discourse, for
example mathematics, sociology, psychology, biology, visual art such as painting, domains in
physics, astrophysics, neurosciences, etc? Unless he trained and specialized in the domains
and subject-matter of that socio-cultural practice.

In that case he will be working as a sociologist, a visual artist or painter, a film maker,
director, an astrophysicist, mathematician, etc and not as a philosopher. To be able to execute
work in those disciplines and specialized areas in their domains he would need to study them.
In that case he will employ specialized information, data, techniques and theories from those
domains and he will not work as a philosopher.

Speculative ‘philosophizing’ has no place in any specialized domain and it has no worthwhile
function or meaningful aim in it.

I cannot see any useful purpose for a philosopher of science, visual art, music, theology,
mathematics, astro- or nuclear-physics, neurosciences, education, etc that could not be
executed by individuals who are specialists in those disciplines, subject-matter and domains.
4
What you can do in philosophy or as any reasonably intelligent and informed person is the
following -
when you come across anything that is being expressed that bothers you because it does not
appear to be clear, meaningful, appropriately expressed or conceptualized, well reasoned and
valid argumentation -
then you can explore the concepts being used to see if they can be improved on,
if the reasoning and argumentation can be improved on.
4.1
you will not find absolutely true, correct or perfect theories, -isms, systems concerning reality,
perfection, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, religion, monism, etc, or
the human body, consciousness, ‘mind’, the relationship between these things,
about human perception, thinking, cognition, imagination and other psychological and
socio-psychological issues in the history of philosophy,

you will not find -isms, truths, systems, theories in the history of philosophy that solve these
things or
65
other questions you have,

yo will not be able to use the philosophical discipline to devise theories for other disciplines

66
for example mathematics, physics, neuroscience, sociology, visual art etc -
unless you trained in, studied and are a specialist in those disciplines and know them.
5
There are three terrains or groups of ideas that pretend to be concerned with philosophy that
are some of the worst offenders concerning irrelevant philosophy.
5.1
The widespread and institutionalized attitude that everyone is a philosopher. That everything
and anything they feel, want, desire, stands for and/or is against, opinions about whatever is
philosophical. And, when they say, think, feel, utter any idea or and attitude or opinion on
anything or narrate personal events or express opinions, talk about their lives, loves, hopes,
fears, needs, desires, dislikes, hates, etc then they are doing philosophy. Then they are
expressing profound philosophical ideas, then they utter incredible eternal philosophical
insights.
5.2
From this world of ignorance it is only the most simple move to place all personal grievances,
concerns and issues on a pedestal of universal, eternal and lasting value and increasingly,
academic importance.
5.21
As a result of this we now have academic studies, degrees, lectures, qualifications, doctorates,
post-doctorates, research, lecturers, professors, journals and faculties on every possible
grievance issue imaginable.
5.3
Presenting yourself as a philosopher, your opinions and activities as philosophical and your
activities as philosophizing are intended to bestow immense importance, great value, universal
significance and eternal, lasting and precious truth, meaning,validity and scientific status on
you, your existence, your opinions, personal life and biased attitudes.
From here it is only a small step to labelling any ideas and opinions about everything as
philosophy of something, sex, gender, no gender, love, hate, depression, relationships,
depression, migrants, work, death, life, war, the weather, climate, planet earth, the past, the
present, the future, etc, etc, etc.
5.4
Philosophy of...... whatever, for example of

67
education,
psychiatry,
politics,

68
law,
art,
morality,
dance,
painting,
film,
race,
gender,
love, hate, desire,
etc.
Where do these philosophies come from?
Who creates or makes them?
Why are they labelled philosophy?
What are their aims, functions, objectives?
5.41
These -isms or ideologies, logics, patterns and systems of ideas are nothing more than
thoughts about, thinking about and reflections on those issues, ideas, topics, disciplines,
socio-cultural practices, domains or intersubjectivities.

Whatever they are, their aims and functions, they have very little, if anything, to do with
philosophy.
5.42
They are speculations about notions and practices, they are reflections on those things. They
might consist of or is developed by reasoning and argumentation, but so are small talk, novels,
journalism and many other things.

There is nothing that makes them philosophy and there is no need to perceive or present them
as if they are philosophy. They are nothing more than some individual or group of individuals’
thoughts and thinking about race, gender, education, social work, psychiatry, film, dance, etc .
Nothing warrant them being called philosophy, conceiving them as if they are philosophy or of
presenting and treating them as such.

They are nothing more than the opinions of the attitudes towards, the ideas about, speculations
concerning those notions, domains, disciplines, etc.

Ideas about those notions or disciplines are collected together, histories of such ideas are then
presented as if they form a discipline of their own. Whatever they are,they are not
philosophy. At most they share certain techniques, such as thinking about and reflecting on
69
notions and presenting such procedures by means of reasoning and argumentation. But so do
many other ways of using words and thinking and talking phenomena, ideas and things.

70
A post by someone -
Question for those of you with experience writing philosophy.
Is it normal writing things that you yourself don’t necessarily understand fully, but upon later
reflection you can grasp and explain?
6.1
My response -
Yes, initial intuitions and inklings that appear vague, when re-reading them and thinking about
them much later are spelled out in much greater detail and more fully thought out.
One possible reason might be that one often think things, ideas, and when writing them down
one thinks one writes the entire,embroidered idea, fully developed, but in fact one only writes
down part of it and leaves out many aspects.

When re-reading it one notices the incomplete description, but this of course is a different
issue from thinking in greater detail initial, incomplete ideas and inspired intuitions.
One ‘problem’ in thinking and expressing original ideas, at least at the initial stages, is -
you do not yet have the idea, the idea yo wish to express, the idea you try to think,
you must conceptualize the idea, have it, find and discover it, at the same time as what you
must do other things - imagine, create, develop, find words, concepts and ideas by means of
which it can be thought, discovered, conceptualized.
7.1
This is a problem at the earliest stages of trying to grasp a new problem, question, idea - and
trying to find ways to create, think, conceptualize, express and grasp it - trying to get your
mind around it, trying to get it in your mind.
Meta-Philosophical Ideas Why and How to do Philosophy
Meta-Philosophical Ideas ;Why and How do Philosophy, 2020

ABSTRACT
It can be summarized as theElectronic

Why ofcopy
Doing philosophy
available and the How of Doing Philosophy.
71
For this purpose I deal with the notion of Consciousness. Not, to develop or advocate yet
another idea about this notion, nor to present another speculation about how everything is

72
conscious or that all think deal with a number of meta-philosophical issues and ideas.
Things are physical, or any of the possible positions in between these two poles. I merely
mention this issue so as to illustrate what and how philosophy will deal with it.
I then deal with some of the possible reasons and factors why certain individuals feel the
intense need, motivation and obligation to philosophize. I focus on the Western tradition of
philosophy and on original- and creative philosophers. In other words, I do not deal with those
involved in academic institutions and professionals. The reason for this being that they teach,
study, criticize and use the ideas of other thinkers and for academic related reasons, rather
than those of original- and creative thinkers.
I then deal with ideas about the nature and origins of our universe, as one possible universe, in
a possible multiverse. Again, the reason for this is not to support or advocate any of the
models, but to try and identify what is philosophically involved and to show how one will deal
with them philosophically by questioning, argumentation and reasoning.

Many people think when they talk about their every day lives, relationships and other aspects
of their minute, little worlds, they are doing philosophy. Some of the fashionable issues that
are favoured at the moment are: racism, gender, feminism, men and colonialism.
Such people think their attitudes, beliefs and opinions about these flavour of the month topics
are philosophy. Let them have their obsessions and concerns, let them turn them into academic
subjects and qualifications, let them do post-doctorate research and write endless books about
them, but do not involve me.

How can I do philosophy as - there are things I do not know, there are things that I do not
know of and there are things that will be know and thought in future that I will never be aware
of.
Multi-sensory, embodied, consciousness (or mind) and minded or conscioussed, multi-sensory
bodies of living organisms can said to be poles of a continuum (2 perspectives). Mind and
body are often viewed in isolation, as unintegrated, dualistic phenomena, thus leading to false
problems and -isms.
I deal with issues concerning the origins of our universe for example the mediocrity principle
and the anthropic principle, fine-tuning hypothesis.

These three ideas, principles or hypotheses are of interest for a number of philosophical
reasons, so I will mention what they are about.
Limits of Philosophy (norms what it can and may do
Limits of Philosophy, 2020

I ask questions about the intersubjectivities associated with the discipline, its pre-suppositions,
institutionalized problems, aims, objectives, purposes, domains, terms, etc.

I commence with the existence of individuals
Electronic copy availableof
at:the human species, the manner in which they
73
are aware of, relate to,perceive, think and think about the universe they find themselves in.

74
I mention the domains employed by philosophy to explore, talk about and explain human
beings in the universe, I intend to explore a number of aspects of the discourse of philosophy
and the doing of philosophizing.
namely metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, ethics, religion, the arts and the tools being
employed for the doing of philosophy.

I question institutionalized problems, the professionalization and institutionalization of
philosophy and I ask if its problems are meaningful and the ways in which it deals with them
are the most appropriate

These are some of the limits of philosophy identified. It cannot meaningfully do the work of
the sciences. It can be an area of study, research, teaching and learning like the Classics. Or, it
can be done as reasoned reflection on any subject, issues, topics, phenomena by words, or
performance and XPHI philosophy activities or expressions. There are three ways available to
the doing of philosophy or about philosophy.
1.1
The institutionalized academic thinking and writing about it, and the study and teaching of it.
This concerns already existing ideas from the past and the work of others from the present.
1.2
As actions or activities such as in performance and experimental philosophy.
1.3
Then there is the opposite pole to 1.1 dealing with the work of others, on the continuum of
philosophically related activities, namely original, creative thinking.
This consists of reasoned and argued reflection by means of concepts on any ideas,
phenomena, topics, issues, anything and everything.
10
One frequently hears mention about the question of progress in philosophy. I saw a question
concerning it again today in a survey about philosophy for philosophers.

If progress in philosophy occurs, if it is possible or not and if one thinks it occurs.
Does the question concern the history of Western philosophy in general, certain domains of
philosophy, subject-matter of philosophy for example ethics, metaphysics, epistemology,
philosophy of art, sciences, etc?

Or does it concern specific problems in these areas or domains? Or does it concern a
particular problem for example the mind-body problem, consciousness, perception,
self-identity, aesthetics and subjective standards, etc?
10.1
Philosophical questions, dealing with them and answers to them are relative to historical
periods, philosophical schoolsand movements, approaches, theories and -isms. Therefore it is
not possible to talk about progress in philosophy as such or in general.

Different methods,approaches, -isms, schools and movements express,conceptualize and deal
75
with a problem, for example consciousness or the mind - body problem in different ways.
10.2

76
Philosophy and sciences would prefer to be seen as quite objective and to execute their
explorationd with a great degree of objectivity, or at least with a major degree of
intersubjective agreement, intersubjectivity or adherence to intersubjectively agreed and
accepted standards and norms.
and Alternative Reality Images

Exploration of INTERSUBJECTIVITY is continued. Different kinds of if are differentiated
and signs for its presence and effects are shown. The difference between it, subjectivity and
objectivity are explored.
Intersubjectivity is crucial and universal for general everyday discourse in all cultures,
sub-cultures, institutions, communities and socio-cultural practices such as religion, sport, etc
or the so-called Manifest Image. It is essential for specialized areas, for example religion,
sport and disciplines such as the humanities, arts, sciences, philosophy and all institutions.
It is a necessity for both cultural, social, interpersonal as well as intra-personal existence,
emotions, attitudes, values and norms. But, it is not limited to human existence, life-worlds,
realities and worlds, but also for animals and all organisms. Object Oriented Ontology would
emphasize that is it not merely something anthropocentric and restricted to human existence
and consciousness (and anthropocentric interpretations of and projections on other objects,
non-human creatures and all organisms, as well as all objects.. In the case of the latter one
would probably replace the notion of intersubjectivity with terms such as energy and other
ways of action and interaction for example intra- and inter-atoms.)
In the Appendix is included work related to the above by others such as Sellars, Brandom
(and his two images, Manifest and Scientific), Davidson, Dennett, Habermas, Nagel, etc.
TYPES OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY and Alternative Reality ImagesTYPES OF
INTERSUBJECTIVITY
Exploration of INTERSUBJECTIVITY is continued. Different kinds of if are differentiated
and signs for its presence and effects are shown. The difference between it, subjectivity and
objectivity are explored.
Intersubjectivity is crucial and universal for general everyday discourse in all cultures,
sub-cultures, institutions, communities and socio-cultural practices such as religion, sport, etc
or the so-called Manifest Image. It is essential for specialized areas, for example religion,
sport and disciplines such as the humanities, arts, sciences, philosophy and all institutions.
It is a necessity for both cultural, social, interpersonal as well as intra-personal existence,
emotions, attitudes, values and norms. But, it is not limited to human existence, life-worlds,
realities and worlds, but also for animals and all organisms. Object Oriented Ontology would
emphasize that is it not merely something anthropocentric and restricted to human existence
and consciousness (and anthropocentric interpretations of and projections on other objects,
non-human creatures and all organisms, as well as all objects.. In the case of the latter one
would probably replace the notion of intersubjectivity with terms such as energy and other
ways of action and interaction for example intra- and inter-atoms.)
In the Appendix is included work related to the above by others such as Sellars, Brandom
(and his two images, Manifest and Scientific), Davidson, Dennett, Habermas, Nagel, etc.
LET'S FAKE MORALITYElectronic
and ETHICS (the pretence
copy available of ethics and morality in philosophy
77
and life)

78
Institutionalized and internalized,‭ ‬competence intersubjectivity contain many user-illusions
an... more
https://www.academia.edu/32531947/INTERSUBJECTIVITY_continued_
PHILOSOPHERS' Thinking vol6 (INSIGHT, UNDERSTANDING, MEANING,
COMMUNICATION INTERSUBJECTIVITY ).docx
Limits of Philosophy (norms what it can and may do
Limits of Philosophy, 2020

I ask questions about the intersubjectivities associated with the discipline, its pre-suppositions,
institutionalized problems, aims, objectives, purposes, domains, terms, etc.

I commence with the existence of individuals of the human species, the manner in which they
are aware of, relate to,perceive, think and think about the universe they find themselves in.
I mention the domains employed by philosophy to explore, talk about and explain human
beings in the universe, I intend to explore a number of aspccts of the discourse of philosophy
and the doing of philosophizing.
namely metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, ethics, religion, the arts and the tools being
employed for the doing of philosophy.

I question institutionalized problems, the professionalization and institutionalization of
philosophy and I ask if its problems are meaningful and the ways in which it deals with them
are the most appropriate

These are some of the limits of philosophy identified. It cannot meaningfully do the work of
the sciences. It can be an area of study, research, teaching and learning like the Classics. Or, it
can be done as reasoned reflection on any subject, issues, topics, phenomena by words, or
performance and XPHI philosophy activities or expressions. There are three ways available to
the doing of philosophy or about philosophy.
1.1
The institutionalized academic thinking and writing about it, and the study and teaching of it.
This concerns already existing ideas from the past and the work of others from the present.
1.2
As actions or activities such as in performance and experimental philosophy.
1.3
Then there is the opposite pole to 1.1 dealing with the work of others, on the continuum of
philosophically related activies, namely original, creative thinking.
This consists of reasoned and argued reflection by means of concepts on any ideas,
phenomena, topics, issues, anything and everything.
PHILOSOPHER'S THINKING (LOGIC & ARGUMENTATION (VOLUME 5))

.
79
10.3

80
Regardless of these aspirations to objectivity and/or intersubjectivity, philosophy will be
influenced by other factors for example, social and cultural ones, civilization values,
attitudes,
opinions, biases, pre-suppositions, suppositions and assumptions.
11
Someone wrote on social media -

I dont believe in cancelling but I dont think philosophy, any more than the practice of art or
literature should be considered an academic discipline.
An academic discipline builds up a body of knowledge, but there is no such grounding in
art,
literature or philosophy.
11.1
I absolutely agree with this,and not onlyfor this reason, but many other reasons as well.
11.2
I increasingly feel the same.

Philosophy consists of fiction and speculation, attitudes and opinions - employing reason
and
other philosophical tools.
Iwrote and write on this socio-cultral practice. It is increasingly misused, abused, to just say
anything, any attitudes, opinions and ideologies and call them critical something because the
writer has a degreein
Philosophy or lecture
(from Greek: in philosophy
φιλοσοφία, something
philosophia, 'love of [1][2][3]
and/or some grievance issue.
is the study
wisdom')
general
12 and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, of
mind,
and [4][5] Such questions are often posed as [6][7] to be studied or
language.The term was
resolved. problems
probably coined by Pythagoras (c. 570 – 495 BCE).
Philosophical
methods
presenta-include
[8][9][i
questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic
Classic ]
tion. philosophical questions include, "Is it possible to know anything?", and if so,
"Can
we prove [10][11][12 However, more practical and concrete questions may be
such ] a best way
it?" as: "Is there posed,
to live?", "Is it better to be just, even if one could get away
with
being [13] and "Do humans have free [14]
unjust?",
Historically, will?"encompassed all bodies of knowledge and a practitioner was
philosophy
known
as a philosopher.[15] From the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the
19th
century, "natural philosophy" encompassed astronomy, medicine, and [16] For
physics. Newton's 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became
example,
classified as a book of physics.
In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy
and
other disciplines to professionalize and [17][18] In the modern era,
specialize. Electronic
investigations that were traditionally
copy part of philosophy became some separate academic
available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713
81
is beauty objective or [19][20] Does the scientific method reflect how science
subjective?
actually is science from pseudoscience?
[21] What criteria separate
practiced? Is dream or hopeless
political utopia a hopeful [22][23][24
fantasy? ]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy
13
We no longer require the following ‘disciplines’ and their knowledge or information.
We also no longer need the aims, objectives and functions these studies and
speculations
one’s served.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
 2Speculative philosophy

 2.1Logic

 2.1.1Organon

 2.2Metaphysics

 2.2.1Substance

 2.2.1.1Immanent realism
 2.2.1.2Potentiality and actuality


 2.3Epistemology

 3Natural philosophy

 3.1Physics

 3.1.1Five elements
 3.1.2Motion
 3.1.3Four causes
 3.1.4Optics
 3.1.5Chance and spontaneity

 3.2Astronomy
 3.3Geology
 3.4Biology

 3.4.1Empirical research
 3.4.2Scientific style
 3.4.3Classification of living things

 3.5Psychology

 3.5.1Soul
 3.5.2Memory
 3.5.3Dreams


82
 4.3Politics
 4.4Economics
 4.5Rhetoric and poetics
 4.6Views on women
14
Look at this interesting conceptual analysis by Spinoza and no weird speculations.

83
PART II.: OF THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE MIND.

Preface.
I NOW pass on to explaining the results, which must necessarily follow from the essence of
God, or of the eternal and infinite being; not, indeed, all of them (for we proved in Part. i.,
Prop. xvi., that an infinite number must follow in an infinite number of ways), but only those
which are able to lead us, as it were by the hand, to the knowledge of the human mind and its
highest blessedness.
Definitions.
I. By body I mean a mode which expresses in a certain determinate manner the essence of
God, in so far as he is considered as an extended thing. (See Pt. i., Prop. xxv. Coroll.)
II. I consider as belonging to the essence of a thing that, which being given, the thing is
necessarily given also, and, which being removed, the thing is necessarily removed also; in
other words, that without which the thing, and which itself without the thing, can neither be
nor be conceived.
III. By idea, I mean the mental conception which is formed by the mind as a thinking thing.
Explanation.—I say conception rather than perception, because the word perception seems to
imply that the mind is passive in respect to the object; whereas conception seems to express
an activity of the mind.
IV. By an adequate idea, I mean an idea which, in so far as it is considered in itself, without
relation to the object, has all the properties or intrinsic marks of a true idea.
Explanation.—I say intrinsic, in order to exclude that mark which is extrinsic, namely, the
agreement between the idea and its object (ideatum).
V. Duration is the indefinite continuance of existing.

Explanation.—I say indefinite, becouse it cannot be determined [83] through the existence
itself of the existing thing, or by its efficient cause, which necessarily gives the existence of
the thing, but does not take it away.
VI. Reality and perfection I use as synonymous terms.

VII. By particular things, I mean things which are finite and have a conditioned existence; but
if several individual things concur in one action, so as to be all simultaneously the effect of
one cause, I consider them all, so far, as one particular thing.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/spinoza-the-chief-works-of-benedict-de-spinoza-vol-2/simple#l
f1321-02_label_343
15
I am horrified by what is presented as philosophy by writers of fiction and speculation in
France,for example Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, et al. Whatever it is, it has little to
do with philosophy and if what they present or do is philosophy then I want nothing to do with
84
that so https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuzecio-cultural practice.

85
It seems as if when individuals in France and the bizarre French academic institutions work
through qualifications, whatever nonsense they produce, bestow on them the status of
superior
philosopher.
It appears as little more than personal opinions and speculation with notions that are
contrived. Then one sees that their work influenced the humanities, that it rocked and
transformed the world of philosophy and the doing of philosophizing. And, A. W. Moore,
quoting Bernard Williams’s criteria for a great philosopher considers Deleuze to be one of
the
greatest!!.
His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and
Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus
considered by many (1972)
scholars to be hisand A Thousand[2]
magnum Plateaus (1980),part
An important bothofco-written with
psychoanalyst Félix
opus. is devoted
oeuvre to Guattari. Hisofmetaphysical
the reading treatise Difference
other philosophers: Deleuze's and Repetition (1968) is
the Stoics, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, and Bergson, with particular influence
derived
from [14] A. W. Moore, citing Bernard Williams's criteria for a great thinker,
Spinoza.
Deleuze among theranks
"greatest [15] Al-
philosophers". though
1 A. W. Moore, The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics: Making Sense of Things,

Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 543: 'intellectual power and depth; a grasp of the
sciences; a sense of the political, and of human destructiveness as well as creativity; a
broad range and a fertile A. W. Moore, The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics: Making
Sense of le imagination; an unwillingness to settle for the superficially reassuring; and, in
an
unusually lucky case, the gifts of a great writer.'
1
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze
3
4 16 Obtaining qualifications or degrees in philosophy does not automatically
transform you into a Kant, Socrates, Plato, Spinoza, Wittgenstein or any other
original and creative thinking philosopher.
5
6 17
7
8
9

86
APPENDIX
https://www.quora.com/How-do-different-philosophers-define-philosophy/answer/Ulrich-Balb
ian?__filter__=all&__nsrc__=1&__sncid__=5672379586&__snid3__=8929240148
How do different philosophers define philosophy?

Ulrich Balbian
According to Aristotle - "Philosophy is a science which discovers the real nature of
supernatural elements".
According to Levison - "Philosophy is mental activity".
According to Karl Marx - "Philosophy is the interpretation of the world in order to change
it".
According to Hegel - "Philosophy is that which grasps its own era in thought."
Kant Immanuel Regards philosophy as "the science and criticism of cognition."
According to Russell - "Philosophy proper deals with matters of interest to the general
educated public, and loses much of its value if only a few professionals can understand it."
According to Henderson - "Philosophy is a rigorous, disciplined, guarded analysis of some
of the most difficult problems which men have ever faced."
According to John Dewey - "Philosophy is not a panacea (remedy for all kinds of
diseases/troubles) for the problems of men, but is that which emerges out of the methods
employed by them to solve their problems."
Aristippus thinks that philosophy is "the ability to feel at ease in any society."
According to Socrates - "Philosophy is a daily activity".
According to Phenix - "Science attempts only at the discovery of facts. Philosophy is not interested in the
discovery of facts. Rather, it is interested in facts insofar as to provide an attitude towards them. It tries to
organize, interpret, clarify and criticize the already discovered facts of science."
D.J. Connar defines philosophy "as an activity of criticism or clarification."
According to Plato "He who has a taste for every sort of knowledge and who is curious to learn and is
never satisfied may be justly termed as a philosopher."
According to G.T.W Patrick - "Between science and philosophy the very closest relationship exists. They
spring from the same root, the love of knowledge and they aspire to the same end, the knowledge of
reality. While science describes the facts, philosophy interprets them."
According to Brubacher - "Science is interested in the proximate or efficient causes of the facts, while
philosophy is concerned with its ultimate or final causes."
Henderson thinks that philosophy is a research for "a comprehensive view of nature, an attempt at a
universal explanation of the nature of things."
Millard and Bectrocci defined philosophy as the persistent, critical and systematic attempt to discover
and consistently formulate in relation to each other the basic characteristics, meanings and values of our
experience in its widest perspectives."

87
According to Ludwig Wittgenstein - "The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts.
Philosophy is not a theory, but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. The
result of philosophy is not a number of ‘philosophical propositions’, but to make propositions clear.
Philosophy should make clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque
and blurred."
According to Raymond - "Philosophy is an unceasing effort to discover the general truth that lies behind
the particular fact, to discover also the realities that lies behind appearance."
According to Carlies Lamont - "philosophy is the tenacious attempts of reasoning men to think through
the most fundamental issues of life, to reach reasonable conclusions on first and last things to suggest
worthwhile goals that can command the loyalty of individuals and groups."
According to Kilpatrick - "Philosophy is a point of view, outlook on life."
According to Dr.Radhakrishnan - "Philosophy is a view of life. It gives a direction to life, offers a design
for living."
According to Existentialists - "Philosophy is not a search for truth, but a trail of truth".
According to Hiryana - "Philosophy is a emerged as a result of reflection over the experiences and
problems of everyday living."
According to Cicero, Marcus Tullius - "Philosophy is the mother of all arts and "the true medicine of the
mind."
According to George Berkeley - "Philosophy, being nothing but the study of wisdom and truth..."
According to Brightman - "Philosophy may be defined as an attempt to think truly about human
experience or a whole or to make out whole experience intelligible."
Kant regards philosophy as - "the science and criticism of cognition."
According to Fichte - "Philosophy is the science of knowledge."
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor defined it as the "Science of science."
According to John Armstrong - "Philosophy is the successful love of thinking."
According to Marilyn Adams - "Philosophy is thinking really hard about the most important questions and
trying to bring analytic clarity both to the questions and the answers."
According to Edger S. Brightman - "Philosophy is essentially a spirit or method of approaching
experiential rather than a body of conclusions about the experience."
According to Richard Bradley - "Philosophy is 99 per cent about critical reflection on anything you care
to be interested in.”
According to Bramold - "Philosophy is a persistent effort of both ordinary and persistent people to make
life as intelligible and meaningful as possible."
According to Herbert Spencer - "Philosophy is concerned with everything as a universal science."
According to Don Cupitt - "Philosophy is critical thinking: trying to become aware of how one’s own
thinking works, of all the things one takes for granted, of the way in which one’s own thinking shapes the
things one’s thinking about."
According to Joseph A. Leighton - "Philosophy like science, consist of theories of insights arrived at as
a result of systematic reflection."
According to Simon Blackburn - "[Philosophy is] a process of reflection on the deepest concepts, that
are structures of thought, that make up the way in which we think about the world. So it’s concepts like
reason, causation, matter, space, time, mind, consciousness, free will, all those big abstract words and
they make up topics, and people have been thinking about them for two and a half thousand years and I
expect they’ll think about them for another two and a half thousand years if there are any of us left."
According to R.W. Sellers - "Philosophy is a persistent attempt to gain insight into the nature of the world
and ourselves by systematic reflection."
According to C. J. Ducasse - "Were I limited to one line for my answer to it, I should say that philosophy
is a general theory of criticism."
According to Humayun Kabir - philosophy "seeks to give knowledge of the whole."
According to Anthony Kenny - "Philosophy is thinking as clearly as possible about the most fundamental
concepts that reach through all the disciplines."
Huxley, Aldous observes "Men live in accordance with their Philosophy of life."
H. Dumery defines philosophy as a "critical reflection on concrete action."
According to Plato - "Philosophy is the acquisition of knowledge."
According to Clifford Barrat - "It is not the specific content of these conclusions, but the spirit and the
method by which they are reached, which entitles them to be described as philosophical..."
Curtis, George William states "During the course of centuries, the meaning attached to philosophy has
undergone many changes, and even in the present day, thinkers, are not in complete agreement about
the aims and subject-matter of this branch of knowledge."
According to Michael S. Russo - PHILOSOPHY = "A critical examination of reality characterized by
rational inquiry that aims at the Truth for the sake of attaining wisdom."
88
Milton K. Munitz suggests that "philosophy is a quest for a view of the world and of man's place in it,
which is arrived at and supported in a critical and logical way."
Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines philosophy as "Love of exercising one’s curiosity and intelligence"

89
rather than the love of wisdom.
The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy defines it as the study of "the most fundamental and general
concepts and principles involved in thought, action and reality."
Philosophy | Definition of Philosophy by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philosophy
1 : the study of the basic ideas about knowledge, right and wrong, reasoning, and the value of things. 2 :
a specific set of ideas of a person or a group Greek philosophy.
What is Philosophy? An Omnibus of Definitions from Prominent ...
Apr 9, 2012 - 'Philosophy is 99 per cent about critical reflection on anything you care to be interested in.'
50+ Definitions of Philosophy : ~ Eduhutch
eduhutch.blogspot.com/2014/04/50-definitions-of-philosophy.html
Apr 6, 2014 - According to Aristotle - "Philosophy is a science which discovers the real nature of
supernatural elements". According to Levison - "Philosophy ...
Definition | language and philosophy | Britannica.com
https://www.britannica.com/topic/definition
Definition, In philosophy, the specification of the meaning of an expression relative to a
language. Definitions may be classified as lexical, intensive, and ...
Definition - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition
A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term Definitions can be classified into two large .... This
preoccupation with essence dissipated in much of modern philosophy. Analytic philosophy in particular is
critical of attempts to elucidate the ...
"Definitions, Dictionaries, and Meanings", by Norman Swartz, Dept. of ...
https://www.sfu.ca/~swartz/definitions.htm
Students often approach philosophy with beliefs about definition which border on the magical. Students
mistakenly believe that defining one's terms will usually ...
philosophy - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/philosophy
The noun philosophy means the study of proper behaviour, and the search for wisdom.
Welcome | Philosophy Ideas Database Database | Current Total Ideas: 19,602 | home | back
structure for 'Philosophy' | expand these ideas

26 ideas
7421
A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault]
572
609
90
624

91
2666
Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and the end of
appetite (good) [Carneades, by Cicero]
21394
Philosophy is knowing each logos, how they fit together, and what follows from them [Epictetus]
6207
What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me [Kant]
4171
4186
19456
Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of presuppositions [Feuerbach]
5278
6118
5368
Philosophy verifies that our hierarchy of instinctive beliefs is harmonious and consistent [Russell]
2512
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language [Wittgenstein]
7085
The main problem of philosophy is what can and cannot be thought and expressed [Wittgenstein, by
Grayling]
6870
I say (contrary to Wittgenstein) that philosophy expresses what we thought we must be silent
about [Ansell Pearson on Wittgenstein]
5196
6707
7426
2510
2516
12644
Who cares what 'philosophy' is? Most pre-1950 thought doesn't now count as philosophy [Fodor]
8217
Philosophy is a concept-creating discipline [Deleuze/Guattari]
92
9778
There is no dialogue in philosophy [Zizek]

93
9218
Maybe what distinguishes philosophy from science is its pursuit of necessary truths [Sider]
15357
Philosophy is the most general intellectual discipline [Horsten]
26 ideas
7421
A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault]
Full Idea: Socrates asks people 'Are you caring for yourself?' He is the man who cares about the care of
others; this is the particular position of the philosopher.
From: report of Socrates (reports of career [c.420 BCE]) by Michel Foucault - Ethics of the Concern for
Self as Freedom p.287
A reaction: Priests, politicians and psychiatrists also care quite intensely about the concerns of other
people. Someone who was intensely self-absorbed with the critical task of getting their own beliefs right
would count for me as a philosopher.
572
Full Idea: Philosophy differs from dialectic in the manner of its powers, and from sophistry in the choice of
life that it involves.
A reaction: Note the separation of dialectic from the heart of philosophy, and the claim that philosophy is
a way of life.
609
Full Idea: Philosophy is a kind of science that deals with principles.
From: Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1059a)
A reaction: So is philosophy just part of science - the bit that tries to explain the abstract instead of the
physical?
624
Full Idea: Absolute thinking is the thinking of thinking.
A reaction: Connects to the apparently unique human ability to reflect about our own thoughts.
2666
Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and the end of
appetite (good) [Carneades, by Cicero]
Full Idea: Carneades said the two greatest things in philosophy were the criterion of truth and the end of
goods, and no man could be a sage who was ignorant of the existence of either a beginning of the
process of knowledge or an end of appetition.
From: report of Carneades (fragments/reports [c.174 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Academica II.09.29
A reaction: Nice, but I would want to emphasise the distinction between truth and its criterion. Admittedly
we would have no truth without a good criterion, but the truth itself should be held in higher esteem than
our miserable human means of grasping it.
94
21394
Philosophy is knowing each logos, how they fit together, and what follows from them [Epictetus]

95
Full Idea: [Philosophical speculation] consists in knowing the elements of 'logos', what each of them is
like, how they fit together, and what follows from them.
From: Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 4.08.14), quoted by A.A. Long - Hellenistic Philosophy 4.1
A reaction: [Said to echo Zeno] If you substitute understanding for 'logos' (plausibly), I think this is exactly
the view of philosophy I would subscribe to. We want to understand each aspect of life, and we want
those understandings to cohere with one another.
6207
What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me [Kant]
Full Idea: Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the oftener and the
more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], Concl)
A reaction: I am beginning to think that the two major issues of all philosophy are ontology and
meta-ethics, and Kant is close to agreeing with me. He certainly wasn't implying that astronomy was a key
aspect of philosophy.
4171
Full Idea: Philosophy considers only the universal, in nature as everywhere else.
From: Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], II.27)
A reaction: I think what draws people to philosophy is an interest in whatever is timeless. Contingent
reality is so frustrating and exhausting. Hence I agree.
4186
Full Idea: Every person is conscious of all philosophical truths, but to bring them to conceptual
awareness, to reflection, is the business of the philosopher.
From: Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], IV.68)
A reaction: I like this. All human beings are philosophical. It seems unlikely, though, that we are all
pre-conceptually conscious of the higher levels of philosophical logic.
19456
Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of presuppositions [Feuerbach]
Full Idea: Philosophy does not presuppose anything. It is precisely in this fact of non-presupposition that
its beginning lies - a beginning by virtue of which it is set apart from all the other sciences.
From: Ludwig Feuerbach (On 'The Beginning of Philosophy' [1841], p.135)
A reaction: Most modern philosophers seem to laugh at such an idea, because everything is
theory-laden, culture-laden, language-laden etc. As an aspiration I love it, and think good philosophers get
quite close to the goal (which, I admit, is not fully attainable).
5278
Full Idea: When reality is depicted, philosophy as an independent branch of knowledge loses its medium
of existence. At best it is a summing up of general results, abstractions which arise from observation of
the historical development of man.
From: K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.A)
A reaction: This strikes me as nonsense, based on a bogus Hegelian notion that history is following some
sort of pattern, and that mental reality is fixed by physical conditions. The philosophy of mathematics, for
one, won't fit into this definition.
96
6118

97
Full Idea: The business of philosophy, as I conceive it, is essentially that of logical analysis, followed by
logical synthesis.
From: Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.162)
A reaction: I am uneasy about Russell's hopes for the contribution that logic could make, but I totally
agree that analysis is the route to wisdom, and I take Aristotle as my role model of an analytical
philosopher, rather than the modern philosophers of logic.
5368
Philosophy verifies that our hierarchy of instinctive beliefs is harmonious and consistent [Russell]
Full Idea: Philosophy should show us the hierarchy of our instinctive beliefs, ..and show that they do not
clash, but form a harmonious system. There is no reason to reject an instinctive belief, except that it
clashes with others.
A reaction: This is open to the standard objections to the coherence theory of truth (as explained by
Russell!), but I like this view of philosophy. Somewhere behind it is the rationalist dream that the final set
of totally consistent beliefs will have to be true.
2512
Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language
[Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: Philosophical problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we
have already known. Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of
language.
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], §109), quoted by Jerrold J. Katz -
Realistic Rationalism Int.xi
A reaction: A philosophical dispute can be settled by a piece of information, which may be already known
to you, but new to me. Philosophical discussion can also point to a scientific research programme - i.e. a
need for new information. I like the first sentence.
7085
The main problem of philosophy is what can and cannot be thought and expressed [Wittgenstein, by
Grayling]
Full Idea: The 'Tractatus' concerns the theory of what can be expressed by propositions (and, which
comes to the same thing, can be thought), and what cannot be expressed by propositions, but can only
be shown; which, I believe, is the main problem of philosophy.
From: report of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Letter to Russell [1920]) by A.C. Grayling - Wittgenstein Ch.2
A reaction: This contains what a I consider the heresy of making thought depend on language, but his
main question remains, of the limits of thought. It is dramatised nicely in the 'mysterian' view of the
mind-body problem (e.g. Idea 2540).
6870
I say (contrary to Wittgenstein) that philosophy expresses what we thought we must be silent
about [Ansell Pearson on Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: I recognise the incredible force of Wittgenstein's closing statement in the 'Tractatus', but I hold
the opposite view: philosophy exists to give expression to that which we think we can only remain silent
about.
A reaction: A wonderful remark, with which I totally agree. Compare Idea 1596. I think it is just a fact that
philosophers are able to articulate a huge number of ideas which other intelligent people find very
interesting but on which they are unable to speak.
5196
Full Idea: Philosophy is a departme
98
A reaction: Personally I would invert that. Philosophy is concerned with human rationality, of which
precise logic appears to be a rather limited subdivision. I see philosophy as the 'master' subject, not the
'servant' subject (as Locke had implied).

99
6707
Full Idea: There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judgine whether life is
or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.
From: Albert Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus [1942], p.11)
A reaction: What a wonderful thesis for a book. In Idea 2682 there is the possibility of life being worth
living, but not worth a huge amount of effort. It is better to call Camus' question the first question, rather
than the only question.
7426
Full Idea: In its critical aspect, philosophy is that which calls into question domination at every level
From: Michel Foucault (Ethics of the Concern for Self as Freedom [1984], p.300)
A reaction: A very French view of the subject. It is tempting to say that they had their adolescent outburst
in 1789, and it is time to grow up. With rights come responsibilities...
2510
Full Idea: The traditional conception of philosophy is that it is an a priori enquiry into the most general
facts about reality.
From: Jerrold J. Katz (Realistic Rationalism [2000], Int.xi)
A reaction: I think this still defines philosophy, though it also highlights the weakness of the subject,
which is over-confidence about asserting necessary truths. How could the most god-like areas of human
thought be about anything else?
2516
philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
A reaction: He says this jokingly, but it is obviously true. Philosophy requires extreme imagination, and it
also requires taking seriously possibilities that are dismissed by others. It would be a catastrophe if we all
dismissed the truth as self-evidently false.
2937
What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence [Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silen
A reaction: This is either a boring truism, or points towards some sort of verificationism (where we can
speak meaninglessly). Compare Ideas 7973 and 6870.
2626
A philosopher is outside any community of ideas [Wittgenstein]
Full Idea: The philosopher is not a citizen of any community of ideas; that is what makes him a
philosopher.
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Zettel [1950], 455)
A reaction: A bit surprising from the man who gave us 'language games' and 'private language
argument'.
20435
If philosophy could be summarised it would be pointless [Adorno]
Full Idea: Philosophy is in essence not summarisable. Otherwise it would be superfluous; that most of it
allows its to be summarised speaks against
Electronic copyit.available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713
100
A reaction: This seems contradict the Cicero quotation which I take to be the epigraph of my collection of
ideas. Adorno has a very 'continental' view, placing philosophy much closer to poetry (Heidegger's later
view) than to science. Not like advocacy either.

101
3269
If your life is to be meaningful as part of some large thing, the large thing must be meaningful [Nagel]
Full Idea: Those seeking to give their lives meaning usually envision a role in something larger than
themselves, …but such a role can't confer significance unless that enterprise is itself significant.
From: Thomas Nagel (The Absurd [1971], §3)
A reaction: Which correctly implies that this way of finding meaning for one's life is doomed.
3242
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture can't skip it [Nagel]
Full Idea: Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
From: Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], Intro)
A reaction: Can he really mean that a mature culture doesn't need philosophy?
7973
There is no longer anything on which there is nothing to say [Baudrillard]
Full Idea: There is no longer anything on which there is nothing to say.
From: Jean Baudrillard (The Intelligence of Evil [2004], p. 17)
A reaction: Compare Ideas 2937 and 6870. I'm not sure whether Baudrillard is referring to the limits of
philosophy, or merely to social taboos. I like Ansell Pearson's view: we should attempt to discuss what
appears to be undiscussable.
9786
Philosophers working like teams of scientists is absurd, yet isolation is hard [Cartwright,R]
Full Idea: The notion that philosophy can be done cooperatively, in the manner of scientists or engineers
engaged in a research project, seems to me absurd. And yet few philosophers can survive in isolation.
From: Richard Cartwright (Intro to 'Philosophical Essays' [1987], xxi)
A reaction: This why Nietzsche said that philosophers were 'rare plants'.
3695
Philosophy is a priori if it is anything [Bonjour]
Full Idea: My conviction is that philosophy is a priori if it is anything.
From: Laurence Bonjour (In Defence of Pure Reason [1998], Pref)
A reaction: How about knowledge of a posteriori necessities, such as the length of a metre, known by
observation of the standard metre in Paris?
8220
Philosophy is in a perpetual state of digression [Deleuze/Guattari]
Full Idea: Philosophy can be seen as being in a perpetual state of digression.
Full Idea: What is your aim in philosophy? - To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.
From: Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], §309)
A reaction: Ridiculous. Trying to think about thought is not a pointless buzzing - it is an attempt by
humans to become like gods.
9810
From: comment on Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [1921], p.16) by Alain Badiou -
Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little
A reaction: French philosophers do lovecopy
Electronic making wicked
available remarks like that. It seems that analysis is
102
anti-philosophy, or 'little' philosophy in Badiou's parlance

103
From: comment on Ludwig Wittgenstein (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [1921], p.16) by Alain Badiou -
Mathematics and Philosophy: grand and little
A reaction: French philosophers do love making wicked remarks like that. It seems that analysis is
anti-philosophy, or 'little' philosophy in Badiou's parlance.
19621
Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms [Cioran]
Full Idea: The philosopher's originality comes down to inventing terms.
From: E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 1 'Farewell')
A reaction: Analytic philosophers are just as obsessed with inventing terms as their continental rivals. Kit
Fine, for example. It can't be wrong to invent terms. Scientists do it too.
19618
I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human weakness [Cioran]
Full Idea: I turned away from philosophy when it became impossible to discover in Kant any human
weakness, any authentic accent of melancholy; in Kant and in all the philosophers.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~stroble/philosophy_definitions.html
Arthur Schopenhauer:
‘The two main requirements for philosophising are: firstly, to have the courage not to keep any questions back; and secondly,to
attain a clear consciousness of anything that goes without saying so as to comprehend it as a problem.’ Essays and Aphorisms,
Trans R. J. Hollingdale (London Penguin, 1970) p.117.

Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, p. 43:
". . .philosophy is merely an elucidated experience."

Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, p. 5 [quoting Dummett]
Only with Frege was the proper object of philosophy finally established: namely, that the goal of philosophy is the analysis of the
structure of thought; secondly, that the study of thought is to be sharply distinguished from the study of the psychological process
of thinking; and finally, that the only proper method for analyzing thought consists in the analysis of language. . . . The
acceptance of these three tenets is common to the entire analytical school . . . [but] it has taken nearly a half-century since his
death for us to apprehend clearly what the real task of philosophy, as concieved by him, involves.
William James
"Philosophy is the unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly."

G. E. Moore, gesturing towards his bookshelves:
"It is what these are about."

Wittgenstein, Tractatus,
4.0031 All philosophy is a 'critique of language' (though not in Mauthner's sense).4.112 Philosophy aims at the logical
clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of
elucidations. Philosophy does not result in 'philosophical propositions', but rather in the clarification of propositions. Without
philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries.
Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence, p. 6:
But philosophy is after all perhaps only the recognition of the abysses which lie on each side of the footpath that the vulgar
follow with the serenity of somnambulists.

McKenna, Andrew J.Violence and difference : Girard, Derrida, and Deconstruction.p. 50, quoting Derrida, (Writing and Difference, 62):
"To define philosophy as the attempt-to-say-the-hyperbole is to confess-- and philosophy is perhaps this gigantic confession--
that by virtue of the historical enunciation through which philosophy tranquilizes itself and excludes madness, philosophy
betrays itself (or betrays itself as thought), enters into a crisis and a forgetting of itself that are an essential and necessary period
of its movement. I philosophize only Electronic
in terror, in copy
the confessed
availableterror of going mad. The confession is simultaneously, at its
104
present moment, oblivion and unveiling, protection and exposure: economy"

Marx, Karl, Theses on Feuerbach, #11

105
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.Die Philosophen haben die
Welt nur verschieden interpretiert; es kömmt darauf an, sie zu verändern.

Heraclitus Diogenes Laertius, Bk. 9:1,7, Fragment #46
Thinking [Philosophy?] is a sacred disease.

Billacois, François, The Duel: Its Rise and Fall in Early Modern France, p. 158
For there had been a rumour that only one of them made a pious end, while his companion `died like a philosopher... because he
neither moved nor spoke [as he went to his death]'. This rumour was not unlikely. Séguenot admitted that Condren had to work
hard at the spiritual preparation of Bouteville, who received:"things that were said to him with the strength of his mind and his
courage and behaved more like a philosopher than a Christian; for his mind was naturally of a rare and excellent cast, he was
firm in his reasoning, relying on his own maxims and distanced from common and popular sentiments, and he seemed to have
something of the ancient philosophers. All these are qualities that are not very favorable to that grace which is only given to the
small and humble.For the society which saw Bouteville as a paradigmatic duellist, that duellist was (except for miraculous cases
of intervention by divine grace) a gentleman who placed all his confidence in his own virtue, a superbly magnanimous man,
closer to Epictetus than to the Imitation of Christ.
Habermas (Preface to Legitimation Crisis)
[Philosophy is]. . . clarification of very general structures of hypotheses.

From Ambrose Beirce's Devil's Dictionary:
PHILOSOPHY, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.TRUTH, n. An ingenious compound of desirability
and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind
and has a fair prospect of existing with increasing activity to the end of time.
Bradley, F.H. Appearance and Reality: p. xii:
I see written there [his notebooks] that `Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct, but to find
these reasons is no less an instinct.

Alasdair McIntyre :
The teaching of a method is nothing other than the teaching of a certain kind of history.
Davis, Grady Scott Warcraft and the Fragility of Virtue, p. 172:
Reading philosophy won't make someone good, it can only clarify how a person of practical reason deliberates about actions.
Edie Brickell, "What I Am" from the album shooting rubberbands at the stars, 1986 Geffen Music, ASCAP:
Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box, religion is the smile on a dog;Philosophy is a walk on the slippery rocks, religion is a light
in the fog,
Dan Shannon
Those who either follow a rational method in their argument for discovery or who engage in the content of philosophical
speculation, specifically on the question, `Whether it is possible to gain knowledge of the absolute?', would be eligible for the
title `philosopher.'
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
§9 Philosophy is this tyrannical drive itself, the most spiritual will to power.§61 The philosopher as we understand him, we free
spirits-- as the man of the most comprehensive responsibility who has the conscience for the over-all development of man-- . . .
Hegel, Preface toThe Philosophy of Right:
To comprehend what is is the task of philosophy, for what is is reason.

Robert Ginsberg :
Philosophy is a creative art of making problems.. . . Philosophy probes problems. It tries to show what a problem is in the sense
of what is problematic about it. It explores alternative possibilities of dealing with the problem.
106
Hawaii Rent-All, message billboard, Honolulu, 9/95:
A philosopher has a problem for every solution.

107
Callicott, J. Baird. In Defense of the Land Ethic, p. 4-5
Today the need is greater than ever for philosophers to do what they once did-- to redefine the world picture in response to
irretrievably transformed human experience and to the flood of new information and ideas pouring forth from the sciences; to
inquire what new way we human beings might imagine our place and role in nature; and to figure out how these big new ideas
might change our values and realign our sense of duty and obligation.
Dilworth, David, Translator s Preface to Nishida s Art and Morality, p. xi:
The emergence of an original, yet intrinsically coherent, interlocking vocabulary may be said to be the mark of a philosopher.
(Cf. Rorty and later Wittgenstein)

From the Web Page ofPeter J. King
I take 'philosophy' to be an English word referring to a certain kind of thinking, a certain kind of approach to a certain kind of
problem. To explain those 'certain kind of's would take a book; the best I can do here is gesture at what it is that
English-language philosophers do. In most languages there are words that are translated into English as 'philosophy' -- in
European languages, those words often share the same Greek roots as the English word. The activities to which such words refer
have a history shared with philosophy, but at some point after Kant there was a parting of the ways. The activities referred to by
`philosophy' are different in various ways from the activities referred to by words like 'philosophie', 'Philosophie', 'filosofia', etc.
James W. Heisig, Rude Awakenings, p. 270:
The perennial task of philosophy does not consist in transmitting accumulated knowledge but in reassuring the love of truth.
This demands a special relationship of mutual criticism between teacher and student for which reason and not rank provides the
basis.
John Dewey, Quoted by Cornel West in The American Evasion of Philosophy, p. 112
When it is acknowledged that under the disguise of dealing with ultimate reality, philosophy has been occupied with the precious
values embedded in social traditions, that it has sprung from a clash of social ends and from a conflict of inherited institutions
with incompatible contemporary tendencies, it will be seen that the task of future philosophy is to clarify men's ideas as to the
social and moral strifes of their own day. Its aim is to become as far as is humanly possible an organ for dealing with these
conflicts.
Aquinas, Aristoteles librum de caelo, XXII, §228:
Now, some claim that these poets and philosophers, and especially Plato, did not understand these matters in the way their words
sound on the surface, but wished to conceal their wisdom under certain fables and enigmatic statements. Moreover, they claim
that Aristotle's custom in many cases was not to object against their understanding, which was sound, but against their words,
lest anyone should fall into error on account of their way of speaking. So says Simplicius in his Commentary. But Alexander
held that Plato and the other early philosophers understood the matter just as the words sound literally, and that Aristotle
undertook to argue not only against their words but against their understanding as well. Whichever of these may be the case, it is
of little concern to us, because the study of philosophy aims not at knowing what men feel, but at what is the truth of things.
The American Philosophical Association, Statement on Outcomes Assessment (Proceeding and Addresses 69:5, p. 66)
The APA calls upon administrators to recognize that philosophy is fundamentally a matter of the cultivation and employment of
analytic, interpretive, normative and critical abilities. It is less content- and technique- specific than most other academic
disciplines. The basic aim of education in philosophy is not and should not be primarily to impart information. Rather it is to
help students to understand various kinds of deeply difficult intellectual problems, to interpret texts regarding these problems, to
analyze and criticize the arguments found in them, and to express themselves in ways that clarify and carry forward reflection
upon them.
Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments, chapter XLII
Philosophers acquire needs and interests unknown to uneducated men; above all, philosophers do not recant in the public forum
the principles that they have upheld in private, and they acquire the habit of loving truth for itself. A good selection of such men
constitutes the happiness of a nation, but that happiness will be temporary unless good laws augment their number so as to
diminish the ever considerable risk of a poor choice.

Feuerbach, according to Marx in "Critique of the Hegelian Dialectic and Philosophy as a Whole"
Philosophy is nothing else but religion rendered into thought and expounded by thought, hence equally to be condemned as
another form and manner of existence of the estrangement of the essence of man;
Cornel West, The American Evasion of Philosophy, p. 231:
For him (Gramsci), the aim of philosophy is not only
Electronic copytoavailable
become worldly by imposing its elite intellectual views upon people, but
108
to become part of a social movement by nourishing and being nourished by the philosophical views of oppressed people
themselves for the aims of social change and personal meaning.

109
Rolf Ahlers, on hegel-l@bucknell.edu:
That is what philosophy is: Its time grasped in thought.

Wilfrid Sellars:
The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang
together in the broadest possible sense of the term.
Heidegger: An extraordinary enquiry into the extraordinary.

Chris Nagel:
My point is this: when I teach Introduction to Philosophy, I meet a great many students who are convinced that going to college
is a matter of purchasing a document that entitles them to certain societal benefits, and which has almost nothing to do with
what happens in classes. They so disrespect the institution of education (not the college, but the cultural form) that they consider
my efforts to prod them to think as quaint or insulting. Our society rewards this behavior. It's odd to ask the question who is
responsible, since this has become the pervading cultural climate.

John Shand
Mon, 5 Jun 2000 on PHILOS-L@LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
Philosophy is not, I think, a body of truths, but a way of thinking and living. It might not make you happy - but it does embody
that courageous openness and questioning that is perhaps the noblest feature of human beings. Without philosophy, as far as
one's basic beliefs are concerned one will just end up believing what one is given. The duty of a philosopher is to free people to
think for themselves. So next time you're at a party, and someone asks you, having heard you're a philosopher, 'So what is
philosophy then?' - instead of shifting about looking for an excuse to leave or falling back on the old classic of 'well, that's best
understood by doing it?errm, mind if I go and get another drink?', try: philosophy is what happens when people start thinking
for themselves.
Bernard Williams, in "Philosophy As a Humanistic Discipline"
I have already started to talk about philosophy being this or that, and such and such being central to philosophy, and this may
already have aroused suspicions of essentialism, as though philosophy had some entirely distinct and timeless nature from which
various consequences could be drawn. So let me say at once that I do not want to fall back on any such idea.
Michel Foucault The Masked Philosopher, Le Monde, April 6-7, 1980
What is philosophy after all? If not a means of reflecting on not so much what is true or false but on our relation to truth? How,
given that relation to truth, should we act?

Jacques Derrida, Who's Afraid of Philosophy?, p. 7:
But can the same be said about the question "What is the philosophical?"? This is the most and the least philosophical of all
questions. We will have to take it into account. It is in all the institutional decisions: "Who is a philosopher? What is a
philosopher? What has the right to claim to be philosophical? How does one recognize a philosophical utterence, today and in
general? By what sign (is it a sign?) does one recognize a philosophical thought, sentence, experience, or operation (say, that of
teaching?) What does the word philosophical mean? Can we agree on the subject of the philosophical and of the very place from
which these questions are formed and legitimated?"These questions are no doubt identical with philosophy itself. But in
accordance with this essential unrest of philosophical identity, perhaps they are already no longer completely philosophical.
Perhaps they stop short of the philosophy they interrogate, unless they carry beyond a philosophy that would no longer be their
final destination.
Zeno of Citium, in Diogenes Laertius, VII:24
The right way to seize a philosopher, Crates, is by the ears: persuade me then and drag me off by them; but if you use violence,
my body will be with you, but my mind with Stilpo."
From: Jeremy Bowman
One of the reasons why philosophical disagreement looks nasty to outsiders is that philosphers are very comfortable disagreeing
with each other. In my experience, they are more comfortable disagreeing with each other than physicists. In fact, I think it's the
ONE thing philosophers really excel at!

About footnotes (4.00 / 1) (#82) by Pac on Wed Sep 11th, 2002 at 10:53:59 PM EST
It has been said that all of philosophy is just footnotes to Plato
In an article like that, one want to be really precise about this footnote business. Actually, German philosophy is a footnote to
Plato. French philosophy is a footnote to a bad translation of German philosophy. English philosophy is a footnote rebuttal to a
bad translation of French philosophy. American philosophy...as a matter of fact, American philosophy is a footnote to the Wall
Street Journal as understood by the Reader's Digest

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William James, Some Problems of Philosophy
Philosophy, beginning in wonder ... is able to fancy everything different from what it is. It sees the familiar as if it were strange,
and the strange as if it were familiar. It can take things up and lay them down again. Its mind is full of air that plays round every

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subject. It rouses us from our native dogmatic slumber and breaks up our caked prejudices....A man with no philosophy in him is
the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates.

Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy and an African Culture, p. 20.
"It is a function, indeed a duty, of philosophy in any society to examine the intellectual foundation of its culture."
Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
But Counsel, you'll say, is not of least concern in matters of War. In a General I grant it, but this thing of Warring is no part of
Philosophy, but manag'd by Parasites, Pandars, Thieves, Cut-throats, Plow-men, Sots, Spendthrifts and other such Dregs of
Mankind, not Philosophers.

J.G. Fichte. "First Introduction to the Science of Knowledge." (tr. Heath and Lachs.) Gesamtausgabe I, 434.
What sort of philosophy one chooses depends, therefore, on what sort of man one is; for a philosophical system is not a dead
piece of furniture that we can reject or accept as we wish; it is rather a thing animated by the soul of the person who holds it.
Marquis de Sade (1740 - 1814), Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu
Le chef-d'œuvre de la philosophie serait de développer les moyens dont la Providence se sert pour parvenir aux fins qu'elle se
propose sur l'homme, et de tracer, d'après cela, quelques plans de conduite qui pussent faire connaître à ce malheureux individu
bipède la manière dont il faut qu'il marche dans la carrière épineuse de la vie, afin de prévenir les caprices bizarres de cette
fatalité à laquelle on donne vingt noms différents, sans être encore parvenu ni à la connaître, ni à la définir.
George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
1. Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent
most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and
be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men. Yet so it is, we see the illiterate bulk of mankind that walk the
high-road of plain common sense, and are governed by the dictates of nature, for the most part easy and undisturbed. To them
nothing that is familiar appears unaccountable or difficult to comprehend. They complain not of any want of evidence in their
senses, and are out of all danger of becoming Sceptics. But no sooner do we depart from sense and instinct to follow the light of
a superior principle, to reason, meditate, and reflect on the nature of things, but a thousand scruples spring up in our minds
concerning those things which before we seemed fully to comprehend. Prejudices and errors of sense do from all parts discover
themselves to our view; and, endeavouring to correct these by reason, we are insensibly drawn into uncouth paradoxes,
difficulties, and inconsistencies, which multiply and grow upon us as we advance in speculation, till at length, having wandered
through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves just where we were, or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn Scepticism.
Immanuel Kant, Opus postumum 22:489-90
It is important, too, to distinguish philosophical knowledge, including its principles, from philosophy itself (the formal from the
material aspect of philosophy). The philosophizer cannot be recast as a philosopher; the former is a mere underlaborer (as a
versifier is in comparison with a poet-- the latter must have originality).Even if, as is proper, one takes account in the word
"philosophy" of its concept as a doctrine of wisdom, the science of the final end of human reason-- that is, of what is not just
techincal-practical but of that which is moral-practical, the keystone of the edifice--philosophy with its principles will still be
subject to the concerns of human reason, even where the latter's aim is scholastic (mere knowledge). It must set metaphysical
foundations prior to mathematical ones (although both are given a priori) for the former have in view the unconditional
employment [of reason]--the latter, however, only its conditional employment as a tool for a particular purpose.
From Philosophy Bites, the book based on the wonderful podcast of the same name, comes an
omnibus of definitions, bound by a most fascinating disclaimer — for, as Nigel
Warburton keenly observes in the book’s introduction, “philosophy is an unusual
subject in that its practitioners don’t agree what it’s about.”

Philosophy is thinking really hard about the most important questions and trying to bring
analytic clarity both to the questions and the answers.” ~ Marilyn Adams
[P]hilosophy is the study of the costs and benefits that accrue when you take up a certain
position. For example, f you’re arguing about free will and you’re trying to decide
whether to be a compatibilist or incompatibilist — is free will compatible with causal
determinism? — what you’re discovering is what problems and what benefits you get
from saying that it is compatible, and what problems and benefits you get from saying it’s
incompatible.” ~ Peter Adamson
112
Philosophy is the successful love of thinking.” ~ John Armstrong
It’s a little bit like what Augustine famously said about the concept of time. When nobody

113
asks me about it, I know. But whenever somebody asks me about what the concept of time
is, I realize I don’t know.” ~ Catalin Avramescu

A few common themes begin to emerge, most notably the idea of critical thinking:
Philosophy is 99 per cent about critical reflection on anything you care to be interested
in.” ~ Richard Bradley
I don’t think it’s any one thing, but I think generally it involves being critical and
reflective about things that most people take for granted.” ~ Allen Buchanan
Philosophy is critical thinking: trying to become aware of how one’s own thinking works,
of all the things one takes for granted, of the way in which one’s own thinking shapes the
things one’s thinking about.” ~ Don Cupitt
[Philosophy is] a process of reflection on the deepest concepts, that is structures of
thought, that make up the way in which we think about the world. So it’s concepts like
reason, causation, matter, space, time, mind, consciousness, free will, all those big
abstract words and they make up topics, and people have been thinking about them for
two and a half thousand years and I expect they’ll think about them for another two and a
half thousand years if there are any of us left.” ~ Simon Blackburn

Most simply put it’s about making sense of all this… We find ourselves in a world that we
haven’t chosen. There are all sorts of possible ways of interpreting it and finding meaning
in the world and in the lives that we live. So philosophy is about making sense of that
situation that we find ourselves in.” ~ Clare Carlisle
I think it’s thinking fundamentally clearly and well about the nature of reality and our
place in it, so as to understand better what goes on around us, and what our contribution is
to that reality, and its effect on us.” ~ Barry Smith
https://www.yourdictionary.com/philosophy
http://eddiejackson.net/web_documents/What%20Is%20Philosophy.pdf
https://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/philinks.htm
https://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/philinks.htm#topics
Philosophy on the Internet - Philosophy Resources ...

libguides.usd.edu › c.php
Aug 4, 2020 — Essays on important philosophical theories and philosophers. Includes short lists of important
titles written by the philosopher or about the topic.
114
https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/New-internet-resources.html
https://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/akind/resources.htm

115

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What is Philosophy? | Department of Philosophy
philosophy.fsu.edu › undergraduate-study › What-is-P...
What is Philosophy? Quite literally, the term "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." In a broad sense, ...
philosophy | Definition, Systems, Fields, Schools ... - Britannica
www.britannica.com › ... › Philosophical Issues
Philosophy, (from Greek, by way of Latin, philosophia, “love of wisdom”) the rational, ... Plato (centre left) and
Aristotle surrounded by philosophers, detail from ...
Philosophy - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Philosophy

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2
Philosophy (from Greek: φιλοσοφία, philosophia, 'love of wisdom') is the study of general and fundamental

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questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as
problems to be studied or resolved.
‎Introduction · H‎istorical overview · B‎ranches of philosophy
You've visited this page many times. Last visit: 2020/06/30
Philosophy: What and Why? | Philosophy - Brown University
www.brown.edu › philosophy › undergraduate › philos...
What is Philosophy? Philosophy is the systematic and critical study of fundamental questions that arise both in
everyday life and through the practice of other ...
What is Philosophy?
www.qcc.cuny.edu › ppecorino › INTRO_TEXT › Wh...
Philosophy is an activity of thought, a type of thinking. Philosophy is critical and comprehensive thought, the
most critical and comprehensive manner of thinking ...
What is Philosophy? - The Philosophy Foundation
www.philosophy-foundation.org › what-is-philosophy
What is Philosophy? The Basics of Philosophy
www.philosophybasics.com › general_whatis
Wha is Philosophy? At its simplest, philosophy (from the Greek phílosophía or phílosophía, meaning 'the love
of wisdom') ...
What is Philosophy? - Electronic

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To be philosophical is to be a logical thinker who seeks knowledge of the whole. In this

way philosophers avoid unsupported beliefs but base their views on good ...

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1

How do different philosophers define

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structure for 'Philosophy' | expand these ideas

1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined

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issues really appear as irrelevant.

stretching the notion of philosophy a bit too far.

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Irrelevant phenomena presented as ‘philosophy’

Possible relevant philosophical ideas?

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IQ, EQ, upbringing, age, gender and other factors.

interaction, but in all areas of human existence and behaviour.

embodiment, phenotype and upbringing, etc.

gender, etc when I interact with you - as a living organism.

horizons of our interaction and the reality we constitute.

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and gender priorities, concerns, agendas and problems.

and as topics of essays, seminars, conferences and theses.

style,not that that is what I wished for or intended.

say. Also, much is assumed, not explicitly written.

to be irrelevant in my case and that what I wish to express, do and communicate.

have been created in and by this tradition.

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notions, ideas and images - a kind of fiction.

communities, societies and cultures.

Well it beats me.

particles and atoms, of interest?

How does the Illusion of Free Will operates?

Absolute Determinism and Lack of Free Will

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PHILOSOPHY – Aims, Methods, Rationale

4.9 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713

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such as knowledge and understanding?

different ages and genders?

Are their similarities that can be identified and generalized about?

5.24 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3818713

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different organisms? Are they similar (Kantian like) or different?

Philosophers can only manipulate concepts, just like conceptual artist.

For example the infamous banana sold for 150,000$

regularly replaced. Just like the couscous Algerian city.

My reason for mentioning the above is the following -

philosophy and /or experimental philosophy.

(Meta-Philosophy) Theorizing about Philosophy (CMT, CB and CM) as an exercise inXPhi

(Meta-Philosophy) Exercise in Experimental Philosophy, CMT, BT, CMA

Philosophy/izing is like or resembles the process/es of Theorizing.

A few thoughts on the umbrella-notion of consciousness.

and phenotypes are involved.

the only features, nature or meaning of consciousness.