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Full Idea
Philosophical problems are problems about how what is actual is possible, given that what is actual appears, because of some faulty argument, to be impossible.
Gist of Idea
Philosophy tries to explain how the actual is possible, given that it seems impossible
Source
Cynthia Macdonald (Varieties of Things [2005], Ch.6)
Book Ref
Macdonald,Cynthia: 'Varieties of Things' [Blackwell 2005], p.219
A Reaction
[She is discussing universals when she makes this comment] A very appealing remark, given that most people come into philosophy because of a mixture of wonder and puzzlement. It is a rather Wittgensteinian view, though, that we must cure our own ills.
| 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] |