Vision (Intro to Philosophy Coursera Week 1)
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, amen. A continuation of the commentary on Week 1 of the Introduction to Philosophy course from Coursera. Philosophy has always been moral in character, this is attested by the course statements as well, down to the definition of philosophy. Therefore, argument alone is insufficient, that argument must serve a purpose in reality. This is what the philosopher Hilary Putnam calls “vision”. Vision is simply the moral end of a philosophical problem or argument. It is how life and societies must be ordered.
It may help us in criticizing
philosophical arguments by discovering their actual purpose or moral
significance. That is actually simply stepping back and questioning the
presuppositions of the argument. What does the argument presuppose about morality
and the purpose of humanity? By examining those presuppositions, we can understand
the argument better and if necessary, criticize it and destroy it in a better
way as well. There is not much I can say here, it is all rather
self-explanatory. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without
end, amen.
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