What Philosophy is not – and what it is
No other area of knowledge suffers so much controversy over what exactly it studies as does philosophy. The natural and (even more) the social sciences may harbor ambiguities in their methods and details of analysis, but there tends to be little serious dispute as to what they are investigating. Not so with philosophy. Ask three […]
A vida e o tema de G.K. Chesterton
Versão portuguesa da minha Introdução à edição inglesa da Autobiografia de G.K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press, 1988; 2ª ed. 2006): A vida e o tema de G.K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy and Philosophy
My introduction to a forthcoming new English edition of Chesterton’s ORTHODOXY in Brazil: There are many good reasons for reading Chesterton, but they can be quite different, even divergent. Some may love detective stories and find the Father Brown tales especially engaging, enlivened by Brown’s experience in the confessional and access to otherwise unavailable schemes […]
The Philosopher and the Poet – Siblings in Intuition
Aristotle teaches that the philosopher and the poet both attend to the marvelous, and thus enjoy an occupational kinship. We might expand upon his observation by identifying the effects of such attention. In other words, what happens to us in the presence of marvels that could bring the unlikely bedfellows of philosophy and poetry into […]
Wonders, Transcendences, Domains and Wisdoms
The initial concern, leading me to articulate these related but not entirely coincident triads, regarded the positioning of the love of wisdom – what we traditionally call philosophy – in its relation to three kindred domains: 1) within its nurturing matrix in the world of the humanities and the arts, 2) its relation to the […]
O que a Filosofia não é – e o que ela é
Nenhuma outra área do conhecimento, além da Filosofia, sofre tanta controvérsia acerca do que é exatamente. As ciências naturais e (mais ainda) as sociais podem abrigar ambiguidades em seus métodos e nos pormenores de sua análise, mas normalmente há poucas disputas sérias acerca do que se estuda nessas ciências. Com a Filosofia não é assim. […]
What other philosophers say…
Here are about 20 minutes of a variety of English-speaking philosophers answering (or dodging) the question: “What is philosophy?” (courtesy of the website philosophybites.com). Most are surprised by the question, some refuse to reply, not a few just laugh, and others offer thoughtful, if controversial, attempts. Of course, I like my answer (What is philosophy? […]