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CONTENTS |
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Sample Chapter |
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"The Nature of Philosophy" (001.pdf, size - 145 KB) |
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Author Profile |
 My
serious involvement with philosophy began in the middle of a research
degree in education, when I trying to work out why an understanding
of mathematics, as opposed to (what some might call) the mere ability
to perform mathematical calculations, is important for scientists.
The struggle with understanding what understanding is led eventually
to a BPhil in philosophy at Oxford. Since then, I have combined the
post of Director of Studies at St John's School, Leatherhead, where
I also teach mathematics, with that of Assistant Lecturer in philosophy
at the Open University.Having found much of what I encountered in my first year studying philosophy totally incomprehensible, I appreciate the importance of communicating difficult ideas as simply and as clearly as possible. My first book, Moral Questions (also published by Polity), concentrated on ethical issues partly because my interests at the time but also because it is one of the more approachable and relevant areas of philosophy, even though it is often treated in a dry and uninteresting way. The challenge of introducing philosophy, as a whole, to the new reader has been much harder. The image of philosophy is that it never arrives at answers and, perhaps because of this, is of little use. The reality is quite different: philosophers do arrive at answers, only they never agree with each other. And as for being of no use, well that provokes the questions: 'Useful for what? What end are we aiming for in life?' There are many routes into philosophy but, wherever we start from, pretty soon we hit a 'big' question. Unfortunately, An Introduction to Philosophy does not succeed in answering the big questions but I hope it gives the reader an appreciation of their complexities and provokes him or her to think about them more deeply. |
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