Closing Thoughts on Philosophy

Abstract

I wish it was true of philosophy that it was such a subversive and disruptive process, but it often has been the opposite. Much of philosophy is state-sustaining philosophy, defending, unconditionally, any kind of authority, ecclesiastic and secular. It depends on what philosophy you think of. Apart from Socrates, an almost mythological figure, when you look at more recent times, the British philosophy of the social contract and of the state of nature, liberal political philosophy beginning with Hobbes, and extending to John Stuart Mill, is very much state-sustaining.