more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Philosophy is the attempt to be rid of a particular kind of puzzlement. This 'philosophical' puzzlement is one of the intellect and not of instinct. Philosophical puzzles are irrelevant to our every-day life.
Gist of Idea
Philosophy tries to be rid of certain intellectual puzzles, irrelevant to daily life
Source
Ludwig Wittgenstein (Lectures 1930-32 (student notes) [1931], A I.1)
Book Ref
Wittgenstein,Ludwig: 'Lectures in Cambridge 1930-32', ed/tr. Lee,Desmond [Blackwell 1980], p.1
A Reaction
All enquiry begins with puzzles, and they are cured by explanations, which result in understanding. In that sense he is right. I entirely disagree that the puzzles are irrelevant to daily life.
| 12038 | Translate as 'humans all desire by nature to understand' (not as 'to know') [Aristotle, by Annas] |
| 17949 | Inquiry is the cause of philosophy [Aristotle] |
| 19586 | Philosophers feed on problems, hoping they are digestible, and spiced with paradox [Novalis] |
| 7578 | I conceived it my task to create difficulties everywhere [Kierkegaard] |
| 9254 | In philosophy the truth can only be reached via the ruins of the false [Prichard] |
| 15582 | Perhaps the aim of philosophy is to abolish sham problems [Heidegger] |
| 18704 | Philosophy tries to be rid of certain intellectual puzzles, irrelevant to daily life [Wittgenstein] |
| 21239 | Philosophers are marked by a joint love of evidence and ambiguity [Merleau-Ponty] |
| 22337 | Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning [Murdoch] |
| 13477 | The problems are the monuments of philosophy [Hart,WD] |
| 20446 | Philosophy begins in disappointment, notably in religion and politics [Critchley] |
| 7950 | Philosophy tries to explain how the actual is possible, given that it seems impossible [Macdonald,C] |