Being a Philosopher: The History of a Practice

Hamlyn, D. W.

ISBN 10: 0415029686 / ISBN 13: 9780415029681

Published by Routledge, London, 1992

About this Item

Octavo with glossy black boards and silver spine title; in green and grey pictorial jacket; x, 187 pages; index; 22 cm. "Philosophers often find that the response 'I am a philosopher' when given in reply to the question 'What do you do?' produces a puzzled silence. The puzzle is not one simply about the nature of philosophical thought, it is one about what philosophers actually do. David Hamlyn's enjoyable and illuminating account is the first to consider the history of the practice of philosophy, or of philosophy considered as an institution. Being a Philosopher examines the main trends of that practice and how philosophers have been regarded at different times. The Greek philosophical schools provided the first professional philosophers. While philosophy played a significant role in the setting up of the universities in the Middle Ages, it was severely limited by its subservience to theology. He considers the great philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, exploring the issues of why so few had anything to do with teaching or any other institutional arrangements. The later part of the book outlines the progressive professionalism of philosophy, the emergence of philosophical journals and societies, and current arrangements for the practice of philosophy in higher education. In his conclusion, David Hamlyn draws certain morals from the history provided, emphasizing the importance of philosophical teaching and the institutional backing for it, while noting the implicit paradox that many of the major philosophers had no interest in teaching." --Jacket copy Contents: 1. The ancient Greeks. 2. The Middle ages and Renaissance. 3. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 4. The eighteenth century. 5. The nineteenth century. 6. The twentieth century. 7. Conclusion. Fine; crisp and tight in fine jacket; now in archival mylar.

Seller Inventory # 104592

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Being a Philosopher: The History of a Practice
• Publisher: Routledge, London
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415029686
• ISBN 13: 9780415029681
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

David W. Hamlyn Birkbeck College