Quotes

Grounding the Ivory Tower

Published on November 13th, 2010.

One danger confronting philosophers is that they may forget that their enquiries begin from and extend the enquiries of plain persons and that they are exercising their philosophical skills on behalf of those same plain persons. Philosophers have their own craft, but, like the practitioners of other crafts, such as fishing crews and construction workers, they can practice it for the common good–or they can fail to do so. If they do practice it for the common good, then they will take the trouble to engage in sustained conversation with plain persons, so as not to lose sight of the relationship between their enquiries, no matter how sophisticated, and the questions initially posed by plain persons. Yet, insofar as they include those who are not professional philosophers in their enquiries, they will make those plain persons painfully aware, if they were not already, that there are rival and incompatible answers to their questions and that philosophical enquiry is therefore a source of conflict.

–

Alisdair MacIntyre, God, Philosophy, Universities: A Selective History of the Catholic Philosophical Tradition (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), 10-11.

Filled under MacIntyre. No Comments.