Philosophy 101 #1 – Philosophy is Not Doctrinal

We cannot learn philosophy;  for where is it, who is in possession of it, and how shall we recognize it? We can only learn to philosophize.
– Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781), A838/B866
I thought it would be a good idea to run a series of posts entitled ‘Philosophy 101′ – posts which are short [...]

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In Praise of Fence-Sitting

There is no place for ‘isms’ in philosophy. The alleged party issues are never the important philosophic questions, and to be affiliated to a recognizable party is to be the slave of a non-philosophic prejudice in favour of a (usually non-philosophic) article of belief. To be a ’so-and-so ist’ is to be philosophically frail.
– Gilbert [...]

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Dogmatism, Anathema Theories, and the ‘Handmaiden of Theology’

A friend recently introduced me to an article by the Australian philosopher Bruce Langtry. Langtry is also a Christian, and in a brief piece attempts to sketch ways in which Christianity and philosophy may come together and come apart. Here is a quote I agree with:
The intellectual vice of dogmatism enters in only when one [...]

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