CAHSS Faculty Articles

Title

Practically Profound: Putting Philosophy to Work in Everyday Life

Department

Department of History and Political Science

Publication Date

7-28-2005

Publication Title

Metapsychology Online Reviews

ISSN

1931-5716

Volume

9

Issue/No.

30

Abstract

Excerpt

Practically Profound is an intelligent, thorough, clearly written book. The preface is an excellent introduction to some of the major tasks and approaches of philosophy and philosophers. The author describes the nature of philosophy this way: "Indeed, for the professional philosopher and the philosophical lay person alike, it is a crucial means to a practical end: improving the clarity, scope, mesh, and fertility of all our thoughts and beliefs so as to improve the performance of all the tasks in which such thoughts and beliefs are involved" (xxiii-xxiv). To make the claim is one thing. To demonstrate how this plays out in "everyday life," as the subtitle suggests, is quite
another. The author and publisher present Practically Profound book as fare for the general reader, but the book reads like the typical Philosophy 101 textbook. Furthermore, the idea that philosophy is somehow ‘practical’ is never quite made explicit in the chapters.

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