more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Philosophy does not consist in accumulating knowledge, as science does, but in changing the whole soul.
Gist of Idea
Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge
Source
Simone Weil (Reflections on Value [1941], p.33)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'Late Philosophical Writings' [Notre Dame 2015], p.33
A Reaction
I agree, roughly. In the sense that philosophy is a much more personal matter than any pure pursuit of knowledge, such as geology. Though a life in geology could change your soul. Not just any old change, of course….
| 370 | Philosophy is a purification of the soul ready for the afterlife [Plato] |
| 14523 | We should come to philosophy free from any taint of culture [Epicurus] |
| 18450 | Philosophy has its own mode of death, by separating soul from body [Porphyry] |
| 19073 | True philosophy aims at absolute unity, while our understanding sees only separation [Hegel] |
| 21776 | Philosophy aims to reveal the necessity and rationality of the categories of nature and spirit [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
| 6928 | Only that which can be an object of religion is an object of philosophy [Feuerbach] |
| 15586 | When philosophy makes itself intelligible, it commits suicide [Heidegger] |
| 15585 | Later Heidegger sees philosophy as more like poetry than like science [Heidegger, by Polt] |
| 23885 | Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge [Weil] |
| 3241 | It seems mad, but the aim of philosophy is to climb outside of our own minds [Nagel] |
| 1595 | Philosophy aims to satisfy the chief human desire - the articulation of beauty itself [Roochnik] |
| 9779 | Philosophy is transcendental questioning (not supporting science or constructing ontology) [Zizek] |