Kelly, Thomas A.F.
(2006)
The Role of Philosophy in the University.
In:
What Price the University? Perspectives on the Meaning and Value of Higher Education from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Ireland, pp. 151-162.
ISBN 0901519766
Abstract
Iris Murdoch once remarked that, ‘to do philosophy is to explore one’s own
temperament, and yet at the same time to attempt to discover the truth’.1 Elsewhere,
Murdoch talks about a necessary tension within the discipline:
It is sometimes said, either irritably or with a certain satisfaction, that
philosophy makes no progress. It is certainly true, and I think this is an abiding
and not a regrettable characteristic of the discipline, that philosophy has in a
sense to keep trying to return to the beginning: a thing which it is not at all
easy to do. There is a two-way movement in philosophy, a movement towards
the building of elaborate theories, and a move back again towards the
consideration of simple and obvious facts. McTaggart says that time is unreal,
Moore replies that he has just had his breakfast. Both these aspects of
philosophy are necessary to it.2
To explore one’s own temperament and to try to discover the truth; to keep in mind
the simple and the obvious and to construct necessarily ever more elaborate
explanations: there is a rhythm of expansion and return which is vital to philosophy, a
kind o f respiration which must endure, despite philosophy’s many transformations
during its long career. Murdoch presents a partial view of that respiration of
philosophy, a return by philosophy to basics even as it stretches out towards a
complete, articulate understanding, insofar as this is possible.
| Item Type: |
Book Section
|
| Additional Information: |
A Special Issue of Maynooth Philosophical Papers. |
| Keywords: |
maynooth; university; meaning and value of higher education; higher education; price; philosophy; |
| Academic Unit: |
St Patrick's College, Maynooth > Faculty of Philosophy |
| Item ID: |
9924 |
| Depositing User: |
IR Editor
|
| Date Deposited: |
14 Sep 2018 10:56 |
| Publisher: |
National University of Ireland Maynooth |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
Altmetric
Altmetric