Being a Philosopher: The History of a Practice

First Published in 2004. In a wider sense this book is a history of philosophy as an institution, not a set of beliefs. The author presents the view that it might indeed be argued that it is the institutionalization of philosophy that has worked to its disadvantage. Is it not the case that the two greatest philosophers in Britain this century―Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein― had at most a somewhat tangential relation with universities? May not real philosophical progress depend on a relative freedom from such an institutionalized framework? These are questions which are considered and this book tries to answer.

David W. Hamlyn Birkbeck College