Wittgenstein and the gadfly

This paper presents metaphilosophical reflections with the aim of addressing the seemingly innocuous but actually complicated question ‘What is philosophy?’. It presents a description of philosophy in three respects: (1) It describes why philosophy is. That is to say, it accounts for what it is that gives rise to philosophy, i.e. an ineffable kind of wonder that only increases in wondrousness upon scrutiny. (2) It describes what philosophy is. That is to say, it accounts for theoretical dimensions of philosophy done for its own sake as well as practical dimensions of philosophy done for the sake of bettering oneself and the world in which one exists. This, it achieves by drawing on metaphilosophical ideas presented by various thinkers (most notably from the Wittgensteinian tradition on the one hand, and the Socratic tradition on the other). In so doing, the account stresses not only the compatibility but also the complimentary relation between theoretical and practical aspects of philosophy. Finally, (3) the paper describes what makes philosophy important. Namely, the fact that it plays the vital role of fomenting epistemic dynamism and combating epistemic stagnation, social animosity and discord, and ‘banal’ manifestations of evil on both a societal and an individual scale.

2019

dissertation

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