What It Is Like to Be a Philosopher, or On Philosophers and Philosophy

Jacek WOJTYSIAK

Department of Epistemology, Institute of Theoretical Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

In my essay I discuss the nature and ethos of the philosopher’s profession. For this purpose, I distinguish between pure (autotelic) philosophy and applied (auxiliary) philosophy. The latter (scientific philosophy and humanistic philosophy) serves as an aid in developing science or humanities respectively, while the task of the former (worldview philosophy) is the construction of a worldview. A radically critical approach to this task led to the emergence of technical philosophy conceived of as an art of rational analysis of abstract problems. I claim that the ideal (and the ethos) the philosopher pursues consists in combining the worldview approach with the critical one. I consider the ethos of the philosopher in three aspects: deontological, aretological, and utilitarian. The first two are connected with the opposition between the duty (involving virtue) to grasp the reality (either its entirety or its main principles) (classical wisdom) and the duty (again bordering virtue) to voice maximum criticism (intellectual flexibility). I propose to overcome this opposition with the method of ‘balancing reasons.’ I also think that the social usefulness of philosophy cannot be reduced to teaching logic (as an introduction to science) or history of philosophy (as part of the history of culture) to university students. Due to the all-important role the worldview plays in human life rational support in creating one’s worldview is the greatest good philosophers may offer to others.

Keywords:

pure philosophy, applied philosophy, virtues of a philosopher, deontology, aretology, criticism, worldview