Abstract
We are told in our introductory classes that philosophers love wisdom and that etymologically speaking, they must do so. But we soon find out in those very same introductory courses, that philosophers follow the path of ‘pure reason’ and that they must do so in their search for truth. However, ‘loving’ is a matter of the heart and ‘reason’ a matter of the head-so goes a cliche and one of the well entrenched dichotomies underlying contemporary thought. Consequently, we encounter one of our first philosophical paradoxes: In loving wisdom, philosophers are not following the path of pure reason and in being purely rational, they are not remaining true to their etymologically sanctioned vocation.
Most of the work for this paper was done during my participation in the NEH Summer Institute for College Teachers on Knowledge, Wisdom and Teaching conducted by Prof. Keith Lehrer and Nicholas D. Smith at the University of California at Berkeley in the summer of 1993.
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Notes
Most of the work for this paper was done during my participation in the NEH Summer Institute for College Teachers on Knowledge, Wisdom and Teaching conducted by Prof. Keith Lehrer and Nicholas D. Smith at the University of California at Berkeley in the summer of 1993.
The continuity between love for abstract things like wisdom and truth on the one hand, and love for persons on the other, has been discussed in the last section.
This is a reference to Lala-ded, a 14th Century Mystic from Kashmir. See B.N. Parimoor, The Ascent of Self, ( Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass 1987 ).
Keith Lehrer, Theory of Knowledge (Boulder, San Francisco: Westview, 1990) p. 2. S. Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1984 )
Alvin Goldman, “Empathy, Mind, and Morals”, Presidential Address delivered before the Sixty-Sixth Annual Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Portland, Oregon, March 27, 1992. Reprinted in The Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association.
Goldman, “Empathy, Mind, and Morals”, 21.
Ibid., 21-22.
See Vrinda Dalmiya and Linda Alcoff “Are Old Wives’ Tales Justified?” in Feminist Epistemologies,ed. by Linda Alcoff and Elizabeth Potter (New York, London: Routledge, 1993).
Thomas Nagel, “What Is It Like To Be a Bat?” in Mortal Questions ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979 ).
The distinction of this conclusion from the first ‘literalistic’ solution to our paradox should be clear. According to that approach, the ‘love’ in the philosopher’s ‘love of wisdom’ just stood for what we have now identified as the epistemologically relevant cluster of care-words all relating to the activity of ‘searching’. So, in effect, the ‘love’ there was not thought to be different from rational pursuit. The conclusion here, however, takes love/care in the full blooded sense of a relation between two individuals and shows it to be epistemologically relevant. Now, though ‘love of wisdom’ is clearly not a passionate encounter between individuals involving the simulation heuristic, the epistemic values it suggests have been shown to be not antagonistic to, but continuous with, the ordinary person-oriented love or caring. So we can continue to speak both of ’love’ and of ‘epistemological significance’ in their ordinary senses. What emerges is an analysis of a knowing kind of love and a loving kind of knowledge.
See Ernest Sosa, “Intellectual Virtue in Perspective” in Knowledge in Perspective ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1991 ).
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Dalmiya, V. (1996). Why Don’t Lovers of Wisdom Dare to Love?. In: Lehrer, K., Lum, B.J., Slichta, B.A., Smith, N.D. (eds) Knowledge, Teaching and Wisdom. Philosophical Studies Series, vol 67. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2022-9_16
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