What is Philosophy
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What is Philosophy
MONROE C. BEARDSLEY AND ELIZABETH LANE BEARDSLEY
The study of philosophy is unlike the study of any other subject. No dates,
formulas, or rules need be memorized No field work is necessary, and no techni·
cal equipment required The only prerequisite is an inquiring mind.
About what do philosophers inquire? The word philosophy is of Greek origin
and literally means ·the love of wisdom." But what sort of wisdom do philoso·
phers love?
The answer is provided in our first selection. Its authors are Elizabeth Lane
Beardsley ( 1914- 1990), a philosopher who taught at Lincoln University and then
at Temple University, and her husband, Monroe C. Beardsley (1915- 1985), a
President of the American Philosophical Association, who taught at Swarthmore
College and then at Temple University.
While the best way to understand the nature of philosophical inquiry is to con·
sider some specific philosophical issues, an overview of the subject is helpful, and
that is what the Beardsleys provide.
Philosophical questions grow out of a kind of thinking that is familiar to all of
us: the thinking that we do when we ask ourselves whether something that we
believe is reasonable to believe. "Reasonable" has a broad, but definite, mean·
ing here: a reasonable belief is simply a belief for which a good reason can be
given. Reasonable beliefs are logically justifiable. It would seem that a belief that
is reasonable stands a better chance of being true than one that is not, so any·
one who is interested in the truth of his beliefs should be concerned about their
reasonableness.
All of us have known, long before we approached the systematic study of phi·
losophy, what it is like to want to make a belief reasonable, and also what it is like
not to care whether a belief is reasonable or not. We have aJJ had the experience of
accepting beliefs without worrying about their logical justification, for we have aU
been children. We absorbed the beliefs of our parents, or the opinions current in
our society or culture, without thinking about them very much or looking at them
with a critical eye. We may not even have been fully aware that we had them; we
may have acted on them without ever having put them into words. As long as our
own experience did not seem to conflict with those early beliefs, or those beliefs.
From Philosophical Thinking: An Introduction, by Monroe C. Beardsley and Elizabeth L.
Beardsley. Copyright C 1965 by Harcourt, Inc.
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