Edith Hall on Aristotle, public-facing philosophy, and blogs

While not focused on Indian philosophy, the short article by Edith Hall notes that public-facing philosophy goes back to the roots of the Western tradition. She connects this with philosophy blogs nowadays, which is relevant for us.

Most people do not realise that Aristotle wrote works designed for the general public. If they did, then perhaps more philosophers would automatically assume that they needed to follow his example. In an ideal society, all research conducted at universities would routinely be made available to the public, enabling more people to join conversations about politics, society, culture and science in informed and instrumental ways. This would require wholesale reform of the economic infrastructure of academia – for example, wresting control of the dissemination of research from commercial publishers, and reducing the inflated cost of journal subscriptions. But the internet means that we now have an exciting opportunity to revive Aristotle’s commitment to public philosophy.

Full article here.

About Matthew Dasti

Matthew R. Dasti is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bridgewater State University.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*