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- Title
FROM "WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY" TO "THE BEHAVIOR OF PHILOSOPHERS".
- Authors
Guerin, Bernard
- Abstract
Philosophy itself is discussed as a use of language by philosophers and others. The primary discursive strategy for western forms of philosophy has been to argue how saying words or sentences can have the properties of 'truth' or 'certainty,' and the social and political utility of this western project of establishing words as 'true' is discussed. But since they are just behaviors, words and sentences can have neither 'truth' nor 'certainty' because they are contingent on many historical and contextual conditions. Some more recent versions of western philosophy have indeed moved more towards viewing 'philosophy' as something people do. Three final discursive strategies for retaining a form of 'truth' in words are discussed and dismissed: those resting on 'beliefs' as being true or false, 'thought' as what can be true or false (Descartes), and the use of the logical method to establish truth and falsity. It is concluded that the main usefulness of philosophy is finding ways to shape people to talk in new ways that might lead to new ways of behaving, but this does not mean that those new ways of behaving will be good or bad, useful or not useful, or true or false.
- Subjects
PHILOSOPHERS; CERTAINTY; VOCABULARY
- Publication
Behavior & Philosophy, 2020, Vol 48, p69
- ISSN
1053-8348
- Publication type
Article