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Single Idea 14523

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / b. Philosophy as transcendent ]

Full Idea

I congratulate you, sir, because you have come to philosophy free of any taint of culture.

Gist of Idea

We should come to philosophy free from any taint of culture

Source

Epicurus (fragments/reports [c.289 BCE])

Book Ref

Epicurus: 'The Epicurus Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B. /Gerson,L. [Hackett 1994], p.81


A Reaction

[source: Athenaeus, 'Deipnosophists' 13 588b] No one nowadays thinks such an aspiration remotely possible, not least because the culture is embedded in your native language, but I find the idea very appealing.


The 12 ideas with the same theme [philosophy takes us beyond ordinary life]:

Philosophy is a purification of the soul ready for the afterlife [Plato]
We should come to philosophy free from any taint of culture [Epicurus]
Philosophy has its own mode of death, by separating soul from body [Porphyry]
True philosophy aims at absolute unity, while our understanding sees only separation [Hegel]
Philosophy aims to reveal the necessity and rationality of the categories of nature and spirit [Hegel, by Houlgate]
Only that which can be an object of religion is an object of philosophy [Feuerbach]
When philosophy makes itself intelligible, it commits suicide [Heidegger]
Later Heidegger sees philosophy as more like poetry than like science [Heidegger, by Polt]
Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge [Weil]
It seems mad, but the aim of philosophy is to climb outside of our own minds [Nagel]
Philosophy aims to satisfy the chief human desire - the articulation of beauty itself [Roochnik]
Philosophy is transcendental questioning (not supporting science or constructing ontology) [Zizek]