May 17, 2003

beyond dead white men

This is a welcome change to the usual portraits of philosophers----dead white men.

The philosophy underpining it can be found here

Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at May 17, 2003 12:58 AM | TrackBack
Comments

From your second source:
"In what follows I focus on the issue of feminist canon re-formation rather than the ongoing philosophical debate concerning which philosophical works have merit, which do not, and how to tell the difference."

Isn't the second matter the important one? The first is just intellectual history.

Posted by: Eddie Thomas on May 19, 2003 04:03 PM

Hi Eddie,
one way of doing philosophy is to see what the canonical works can offer by way of resources, insights, arguments, concepts to enable philosophy speak to contemporary concerns instead of yesterdays.

An example would be environmental philosophy or the war in Iraq or liberal democracy eg the plethora of issues opened in liberal democracies by ethnic diversity and multiculturalism.

We would then read the handed down philosophical canon in the light of present concerns. We may come across old texts that have been neglected---Spinoza or Schopeneur say; or we may read classical texts in a new light eg.,J.S. Mill on liberal nationalism or Hume on the emotions and reason.

Either way we are doing philosophy (issues and arguments) and the history of philosophy.

Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson on May 20, 2003 12:49 PM
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