Premium
PHILOSOPHY INSIDE OUT
Author(s) -
KITCHER PHILIP
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
metaphilosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1467-9973
pISSN - 0026-1068
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9973.2011.01684.x
Subject(s) - epistemology , metaphysics , indulgence , subject (documents) , philosophy , task (project management) , sociology , computer science , theology , library science , management , economics
Philosophy is often conceived in the Anglophone world today as a subject that focuses on questions in particular “core areas,” pre‐eminently epistemology and metaphysics. This article argues that the contemporary conception is a new version of the scholastic “self‐indulgence for the few” of which Dewey complained nearly a century ago. Philosophical questions evolve, and a first task for philosophers is to address issues that arise for their own times. The article suggests that a renewal of philosophy today should turn the contemporary conception inside out, attending to and developing further the valuable work being done on the supposed “periphery” and attending to the “core areas” only insofar as is necessary to address genuinely significant questions.