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Articles

The Sound of Action

In the latest in our series of personal views of philosophy, Lisa Kemmerer describes how thinking changes lives…

“Here is one picture of philosophy. It goes on in an ivory tower pursued by cloistered academics who endlessly dispute the contemporary equivalents of question like “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” It is far removed from the ‘real world’. Here is another picture of philosophy. Socrates is hauled into court and sentenced to death – not for anything he might have done, such as sell state secrets to the Lacedaimonians or assassinate Kleon – but for questioning religious ideas and moral ideals, thus bringing about the precipitous transformation of Athenian society. In the first picture, philosophy seems socially irrelevant.

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