by Ben2747 » June 4th, 2008, 3:06 pm
I've attached a link to the Great Books section on the Center for the Study of the Great Ideas, now run by Max Weisman after Mortimer Adler's death. As many of you know, Adler was the editor for a series published as "The Great Books" by The University of Chicago (go Maroon).
Anyhow, there are links on this page to various Great Books indices maintained by various people - I hope you enjoy it. I guess my question would be "what constitutes philosophy?" The responses to your question deal with various branches - moral philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, etc. But if you treat "philosophy" as "the love of wisdom," then what about astronomy, mathematics, music theory, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.? Would you include authors like Galen, Kepler, Fabre, and Euclid? Remember that the Elements were a prerequisite for anyone who wished to study in the Academy. I am confused by those who would gain wisdom through the study of philosophy, but are not wise about any THING. The danger is that philosophy becomes the domain of the turtle-necked, the goateed, the cigarette-smoking, and the coffee-drinking, and is severed from its natural origin - the question of "why" in response to what we observe around us, and the momentum of natural wonder that carries us forward in this quest. In other words, it ("philosophy") becomes a sort of self-conscious "intellectualism," rather than the natural application of the rational faculty to the questions about ourselves, our end, and the world around us. So, what, exactly, is "philosophy?"