Abstract
Philosophers supposedly see the task of their subject as providing rational guidance to thought and action - answering “the big questions” about the world, ourselves, and our place in its scheme of things. But does philosophy provide such answers? The motto of Phi Beta Kappa, America’s oldest academic confraternity, is the proud dictum “Philosophy is the guide of life” (philosophia biou kybernétés). But is this claim defensible? Does philosophy indeed provide a satisfactory guide to decision and to action in the practical affairs of life?
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Notes to Essay Eleven
Wilhelm Dilthey, Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. V, Stuttgart and Goettingen, 1960, p. 134.
Benedetto Croce, History as the Story of Liberty, tr. by S. Sprigge, Chicago, 1970, pp. 147–48.
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© 1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Rescher, N. (1987). Is Philosophy a Guide to Life?. In: Forbidden Knowledge. Episteme, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3771-0_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3771-0_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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