| Philosophy of action  [+ favourites]
Most people see philosophy as remote, esoteric and estranged from what they might consider to be 'reality', but this argument - if it is to be dignified with that title - ceases to have meaning when philosophy becomes moral. Of course, the word 'moral' is rather slippery nowadays, and tends be viewed in a purely negative sense: that is, it tells us what not to do but stays silent on the matter of what we should do. The core assumption of our avowedly Liberal Democratic modern societies is that there exists no basis for a positive morality or philosophy of action... the point in politics, law, bureaucracy etc etc is to affect the kind of neutrality which confers respect on a plurality of reasonable but irreconcilable moral viewpoints and allows them to coexist harmoniously. Etc etc. This thread calls this view into question. To kick things off, I'll quote Nietzsche's suggestion that we must turn to Socrates for such a philosophy of action:
"Socrates.-- If all goes well, the time will come when one will take up the memorabilia of Socrates rather than the Bible as a guide to morals and reason... The pathways of the most various philosophical modes of life lead back to him... Socrates excels the founder of Christianity in being able to be serious cheerfully and in possessing that wisdom full of roguishness that constitutes the finest state of the human soul. And he also possessed the finer intellect".
from Nietzsche's The Wanderer and his Shadow,s. 86, R.J. Hollingdale transl.
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