7 Comments
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Brandon Brown's avatar

Maybe it is my age, but I get uneasy when we try to separate our lives from our philosophy. If unhitched then there seems to be a danger in making the two so separate that philosophy means nothing. Much like our morals expose our ethics, our actions expose our philosophical view of the word. Plus, story is more powerful than pure knowledge.

J. Aaron Simmons's avatar

Agreed entirely, my friend!

Tony Rinkenberger (Guy Mystic)'s avatar

I wholeheartedly agree. Probably since I prefer a process metaphysics where my orientation is experience rather than propositions.

J. Aaron Simmons's avatar

Makes a lot of sense. I am certainly sympathetic to a lot in process metaphysics (though more in the relational side of things than the Whiteheadian approach). I do think that the relation between experience and propositions still is inevitable and that philosophy largely occurs in relation to the latter (but trying to make sense of the former).

Tony Rinkenberger (Guy Mystic)'s avatar

You're right that the propositional dimension is unavoidable. I tend to always push against, which I believe you also do in the article, is the tendency to treat propositions (which I am sloppily using to refer to the technical output of professional philosophy) as the primary focus of meaning rather than as abstractions derived from our experiential life, which you also beautifully articulate and by which I was deeply moved. Especially when you use your family as illustration.

Grant's avatar

No one "owns" philosophy.