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Single Idea 15624

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 6. Hopes for Philosophy ]

Full Idea

Thinking that is free is without presuppositions.

Gist of Idea

Free thinking has no presuppositions

Source

Georg W.F.Hegel (Logic (Encyclopedia I) [1817], §41 Add1)

Book Ref

Hegel,Georg W.F.: 'The Hegel Reader', ed/tr. Houlgate,Stephen [Blackwell 1998], p.153


A Reaction

Fat chance, I would have thought. Hegel's project was indeed to try to get right to the bottom of the presuppositions. My picture is always of holding one thing presupposed while you examine another, and then switching to other presuppositions.


The 11 ideas with the same theme [optimistic views of what philosophy can achieve]:

Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates]
If all laws were abolished, philosophers would still live as they do now [Aristippus elder]
Even people who go astray in their opinions have contributed something useful [Aristotle]
Free thinking has no presuppositions [Hegel]
Philosophy is a search for real truth [Peirce]
Philosophy is more valuable than much of science, because of its beauty [Nietzsche]
A well-posed problem is a problem solved [Bergson, by Deleuze/Guattari]
If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it [Wittgenstein]
For a good theory of the world, we must focus on our flabby foundational vocabulary [Quine]
It is no longer possible to be a sage, but we can practice the exercise of wisdom [Hadot]
Science studies phenomena, but only metaphysics tells us what exists [Mumford]