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Home , Anthony Kenny

A: According to Socrates, the unexamined life is not worth living. According to Aristotle, all people by nature : desire to know. A Studying has intrinsic But how should we examine our lives? How can merit. But what about its attractions we work out what we should do? for the hard-nosed practical type? What is it to know something? What is there A major task in our quarrelsome to be known? And how can we work out and information-saturated society whom or what to believe? is sifting fact from fiction, rational Why If these questions (and their answers) are opinion from irrational sentiment. worth bothering with, then philosophy is Philosophical study sharpens a skill worth bothering with. essential for accomplishing this task: Richard Cross critical reasoning. This alone is good Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy reason to study philosophy. Alex Arnold A: PhD candidate, Philosophy Contrary to what many think, philosophy is not some difficult, isolated, academic Recommended Readings Simon Blackburn–Think: A Compelling Introduction to discipline, but rather something that all Philosophy–1999 bother? René Descartes–Meditations on First Philosophy–1641 of us are constantly “doing.” Studying Richard Feldman–“Reasonable teaches us to think in a Disagreement”–2007 penetrating, organized way and furthermore –An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding–1748

to make connections between ideas and topics Anthony Kenny–A New History of –2010 from a myriad of different disciplines. The Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins–The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy–2009

questioning nature with which philosophy teaches –The Problems of Philosophy–1912 us to approach the world opens us up to radically new and fascinating points of view, and our acceptance (or rejection) of these new viewpoints in turn help to make up different internal “lenses” which color and further inform our view of the world. Katie Finley philosophy.nd.edu Philosophy and , class of 2012