more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
It seems to me that the most important and interesting thing which philosophers have tried to do ...is to give a general description of the whole of the Universe.
Gist of Idea
The main aim of philosophy is to describe the whole Universe.
Source
G.E. Moore (Some Main Problems of Philosophy [1911], Ch. 1)
Book Ref
Moore,G.E.: 'Some Main Problems of Philosophy' [George Allen and Unwin 1953], p.1
A Reaction
He adds that they aim to show what is in it, and what might be in it, and how the two relate. This sort of big view is the one I favour. I think the hallmark of philosophical thought is a high level of generality. He next proceeds to defend common sense.
11242 | Wisdom is knowledge of principles and causes [Aristotle] |
19588 | The highest aim of philosophy is to combine all philosophies into a unity [Novalis] |
19598 | Philosophy relies on our whole system of learning, and can thus never be complete [Novalis] |
17992 | The main aim of philosophy is to describe the whole Universe. [Moore,GE] |
21829 | Philosophy aims to understand how things (broadly understood) hang together (broadly understood) [Sellars] |
3879 | Philosophy aims to provide a theory of everything [Scruton] |
14255 | We understand things through their dependency relations [Fine,K] |