Monday, May 17, 2010

"a laughing stock, an absent-minded buffoon.... the one who is silly"

Simon Critchley, chair of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, attempts to answer an immortal question - what is a philosopher? - in the newest section of the New York Times.
The freedom of the philosopher consists in either moving freely from topic to topic or simply spending years returning to the same topic out of perplexity, fascination and curiosity.
And of course, it takes money to enjoy all that time. Which is why you'd be hard-pressed to find professional philosophers outside academia.

1 comment:

  1. My old joke is that unlike regular academics, who know more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing, philosophers know less and less about more and more until they know nothing about everything.

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