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Full Idea
We are trying to climb outside of our own minds, an effort that some would regard as insane and that I regard as philosophically fundamental.
Gist of Idea
It seems mad, but the aim of philosophy is to climb outside of our own minds
Source
Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], Intro)
Book Ref
Nagel,Thomas: 'The View from Nowhere' [OUP 1989], p.11
A Reaction
It is not only philosophers who do this. It is an essential feature of the mind, and is inherent in the concept of truth.
| 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] |