Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:42:26.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A REALITY CHECK TO FORM YOUR PHILOSOPHY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2015

Get access

Abstract

Your philosophy consists of your beliefs and your reasons for your beliefs. Beliefs form a garden; we need to learn to weed out the dandelions and water the flowers. The readiness to weed out a previously held belief takes courage and is the sign of a true philosopher. In particular we need to avoid committing the aesthetic fallacy, the mistaken idea that what is true is necessarily pleasant, good, or beautiful.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Gettier, Edmund L., ‘Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?Analysis 23 (1963), 121123CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 This essay is inspired by Ayn Rand, Ch. 1 ‘Philosophy: Who Needs It’, in Philosophy: Who Needs It (New York: Signet, 1984), 1–11.