The study of a specific period, individual or school.
Thank you, Dom Eccleston, for a fantastic question; it scrutinizes the stereotype of the isolated contemplative sitting in an ivory tower rationalizing their way through metaphysical and existential puzzles. Questioning things that we take for granted is at the heart of philosophy, and all knowledge-driven endeavors, really. Because I trust that you’ll keep reading, I’ll […]
Does philosophy require solitude? Read More
Thank you, Emir, for such an intriguing question. I have a bold (many would say foolish) answer for you. I want to suggest that your question is even more correct than you perhaps realise. Western philosophy is, I think, obviously concerned with the occult, at least insomuch as the occult is concerned with things ‘hidden’,
Is western philosophy mostly an occult philosophy? Read More
Excellent question, Huka Dabaso! This is actually something I have thought about quite a bit. Like many people, before I studied philosophy in a formal sense, I was pondering the same big questions that philosophy has been dealing with since… well, since we started wondering. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle says that philosophy began when man
How can we reconcile public philosophy with institutionalized philosophy? Read More
Why do we classify perceptions in opposite categories (either good/bad, black/white)? Thank you, Orsolya Kárpáti, for these two great questions. They are so deep that they require books worth of answers, which would draw from fields of history, technology, religion, culture studies, and psychology. Why? Let’s start with a better understanding of what cosmologies are.
Why has dualistic cosmology become so powerful in our world? Read More
Thank you, Austin Birch, for a great question. When I say “great”, I mean not only “fantastic”, but also “great in magnitude”, because exegesis is a huge concept within the history of philosophy. After all, as Whitehead put it, Western philosophy is nothing but a series of footnotes to Plato’s dialogues. To start, I’d like
Thank you, Curtis L. Delyn, for such a significant question. It is generally agreed that Plato came up with the classical definition of knowledge as “justified true belief”. This has been incredibly influential; many philosophers have accepted some form of this definition by filling in the relevant concepts with various theories and interpretations. Here, truth
Can we ever really trust that we know anything? Read More
Thank you, Daniel Riggins, for a significant question, one that concerns all teachers and students of philosophy. Let me begin with a word of caution: I shall be discussing only Western philosophy, since that is my area of expertise. I cannot comment on philosophical traditions from different parts of the world, simply because I lack
How should philosophy be introduced? Read More
The only thought attached here is that it doesn’t seem fitting that the answer is, ‘Whatever science can’t answer.’ Thank you, Joshua Millard, for a great question. Your question has surely haunted all remotely self-aware philosophers at some point in their careers. Remarkably (or perhaps unremarkably, if you have followed philosophy for some time), there
What is the proper domain for philosophy? Read More
