Saturday, December 20, 2008

No Breakfast and no Celebrities either

Welcome to my blog. I intend to spend most of my time discussing philosophical matters so if you are one of those blog readers who wants to know what I had for breakfast or who my
favourite celebrities are, then you've probably googled (or whatever) the wrong place.

I say "probably" because philosophy is nowhere near as boring as it is all too often made out to be - so if you stick around, or come back another time, you may find something here that interests you. In fact I will soon be writing a blog entitled 'Why do philosophers pretend to be so boring?'. Since you've come this far, why not at least check that out?

For various reasons that will become clear in future postings, I have been revisiting some of the classic texts in both philosophy and literature. And just the other day, I came across an excellent quote in one of Seneca's letters: "We go where reason, and not the absolute truth, takes us". By 'we' he means "we Stoics". But the quote stands out for me because it so nicely captures what I take to be the core of sanity in a now fortunately revived, but still much misunderstood and maligned, approach to philosophy: Pragmatism. The importance of this is a subject I will discuss at some later stage. Next time out, I will say something about the ethical significance of the current financial crisis.

1 comment:

  1. Alan,

    Welcome, I look forward to checking in here.

    A fellow pragmatist,
    Jim Johnson
    http://politicstheoryphotography.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete