more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 23355

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined ]

Full Idea

Things are judged and weighed, when we have the standards ready. This is the task of philosophy: to examine and establish the standards.

Gist of Idea

The task of philosophy is to establish standards, as occurs with weights and measures

Source

Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 2.11.24)

Book Ref

Epictetus: 'The Discourses, The Handbook, Fragments', ed/tr. Gill,C [Everyman 1995], p.100

A Reaction

It is interesting that this gives philosophers a very specific social role, and also that it seems to identify epistemology as First Philosophy. Other disciplines, of course, establish their own standards without reference to philosophy.

The 32 ideas with the same theme [attempts to define the whole subject of philosophy]:

7421 A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault]
572 Philosophy has different powers from dialectic, and a different life from sophistry [Aristotle]
609 Philosophy is a kind of science that deals with principles [Aristotle]
624 Absolute thinking is the thinking of thinking [Aristotle]
2666 Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and the end of appetite (good) [Carneades, by Cicero]
23355 The task of philosophy is to establish standards, as occurs with weights and measures [Epictetus]
21394 Philosophy is knowing each logos, how they fit together, and what follows from them [Epictetus]
23367 Even pointing a finger should only be done for a reason [Epictetus]
6207 What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me [Kant]
21757 Philosophy is the conceptual essence of the shape of history [Hegel]
22766 Philosophy is exploration of the rational [Hegel]
4171 Philosophy considers only the universal, in nature as everywhere else [Schopenhauer]
4186 Everyone is conscious of all philosophical truths, but philosophers bring them to conceptual awareness [Schopenhauer]
19456 Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of presuppositions [Feuerbach]
5278 Philosophy is no more than abstractions concerning observations of human historical development [Marx/Engels]
22864 Philosophy is the study and criticsm of cultural beliefs, to achieve new possibilities [Dewey]
5368 Philosophy verifies that our hierarchy of instinctive beliefs is harmonious and consistent [Russell]
2512 Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language [Wittgenstein]
7085 The main problem of philosophy is what can and cannot be thought and expressed [Wittgenstein, by Grayling]
6870 I say (contrary to Wittgenstein) that philosophy expresses what we thought we must be silent about [Ansell Pearson on Wittgenstein]
23881 All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy [Weil]
5196 Philosophy is a department of logic [Ayer]
6707 Suicide - whether life is worth living - is the one serious philosophical problem [Camus]
7426 Critical philosophy is what questions domination at every level [Foucault]
21888 Philosophy is just a linguistic display [Derrida]
2510 Traditionally philosophy is an a priori enquiry into general truths about reality [Katz]
2516 Most of philosophy begins where science leaves off [Katz]
12644 Who cares what 'philosophy' is? Most pre-1950 thought doesn't now count as philosophy [Fodor]
8217 Philosophy is a concept-creating discipline [Deleuze/Guattari]
9778 There is no dialogue in philosophy [Zizek]
9218 Maybe what distinguishes philosophy from science is its pursuit of necessary truths [Sider]
15357 Philosophy is the most general intellectual discipline [Horsten]