Chapter 12. CONCLUSION

Last Issues

In this last module we are to examine the nature of Philosophy itself.  This topic "What is Philosophy?" is one of the Issues in Philosophy.  It is one of the perennial questions.  Philosophy is the only discipline of thought in which to ask "What is Philosophy?" remains a questions within the discipline.  For example if you were to ask, "What is Biology?" the attempt to answer that question is not an activity that is part of biology itself.  the answering of the question "What is Biology?" does not involve the study of life.  Likewise, asking and answering the questions: "What is Poetry?" or "What is geometry?" are not activities that are themselves either poetry or geometry.  Only Philosophy has an examination of its own nature as part of its own discipline. 

In the next  and last section I shall offer my views of the topic of Philosophy.  I shall present and explicate the following notion of what Philosophy is and something of its value. 

Philosophy is the most critical and comprehensive manner of thinking devised by human beings.

Before going to my own concluding thoughts on the nature and future of Philosophy you might want to listen to some mildly amusing comments on and about Philosophy by the actor and comedian, John Cleese.  They were offered in the first chapter and hearing them now or again now they may have a different meaning and value for you.

you might want to listen to some mildly amusing comments on and about Philosophy by the actor and comedian, John Cleese.    placed onto a site by the American Philosophical Association.  Topics include:

01 Survey on What is it that Philosophers do?
02 Living the Ideal of a scientific Life
03 You are fully alive only if you live fully in the Present
04 We live in a formation in an age of Information
05 The Meaning Of Life
06 Obligation to future Generations
07 Desiring what we do not have : Somewhere Else
08 Tabloids and Life Seems better elswhere
09 Starting Point: who Philosophy has Inspired
10 Worldly Good: Is it good that the world is becoming more uniform?
11 Things That Matter: begin in Mystery and end in Politics?
12 Fun: Philosophy Bakes no Bread, so what is ti good for?
13 Quality Of Life or quantity?
14 Courage and Knowing What To Fear
15 Dreams: Is seeing dreams fulfilled terrible?
16 Kids Today: Values Changey
17 Decisions: How should one decide what to do?
18 Silenced: Philosophy seems so harmless and yet ideas really matter
19 The 21st Century may belong more to Philosophy
20 Neighbor Policy: How can we tell if they are any good?
21 To Die For: Why are we afraid to die?
22 Reachable Stars: Is it more important in life to get what we want or to like what we get?

Proceed to the next section.

Introduction to Philosophy by Philip A. Pecorino is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.