First Published in 1975, Philosophy and Its Place in Our Culture aims to show what relevance philosophy may have to human affairs. In the course of this study, a number of other important issues are brought to light. Issues like the need to explain in a new way, and a form intelligible to everyone, what philosophy is about, and to evaluate philosophical achievement of traditional aims- a chastening enterprise.
The way is then clear to seek new functions. Philosophy offers signposts first to the inner nature of its practitioners, and then to aspects of the nature of society and its historical periods. This knowledge is two pronged. Philosophy not only affords a clue to man and society but can even prove a powerful influence over them. John Wisdom discusses such influences, and considers the path open to man. This is a must read for students of philosophy.
Preface Part I: Modes of Philosophy Introduction: On Mapping the Ground in Philosophy 1. Mode (1) Philosophy Looks at Scientific Reasoning (Metascience) 2. Mode (2) The Nature of Human Knowledge (Epistemology) 3. Mode (3) The Scientific Structure of the World (Embedded Ontology) 4. Mode (4) Armchair Science (Parascientific Ontology) 5. Mode (5) The Nature of All Things (Cosmological Ontology) 6. Mode (6) Philosophy as Meaningless (Meta-ontological Negativism) 7. Mode (7) Philosophy as a Way of Life 8. Mode (8) Evaluation of Modes of Philosophy Part II: Weeding And Pruning 9. The Problems of Proof and Disproof 10. On the Refutability of Metaphysics 11. The Refutation of Logical Positivism 12. The Refutation of Semantic Ontology 13. Evaluation of Refutations and Residues Part III: What Are Philosophers’ Goals? 14. The Problem of Philosophers’ Goals 15. Of the Optimists: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley and Kant 16. Of the Pessimists: Hume, Schopenhauer and Bradley 17. One Dogma of Apriorism and Empiricism 18. Social Motives 19. Rationalist Tendencies in Twentieth Century Thought 20. Anti Rationalist Tendencies in Twentieth Century Thought 21. The Twentieth Century Sophists 22. The Place of Goals and Motives in Philosophy Part IV: Philosophy as a Social and Personal Weltanschauung 23. The Idea of Culture and the Role of Philosophy 24. Philosophy as a World Outlook 25. The Downfall of Values 26. Ultimate Social Values: Current Options 27. Pragmatism and the American Mom 28. Existentialism as a Way of Life 29. The Rationale of Duty 30. Quod Vitae Sectabor Iter? 31. Philosophy and the Future Weltanschauung of Man and Society Acknowledgements Index
Biography
John Oulton Wisdom
