“I view the philosophical essay as an artwork kind whose medium is concepts.”
That’s George Sher (Rice College), writing within the present situation of Philosophy Now concerning the level of writing philosophy (other than its extrinsic advantages, like tenure, recognition, and so forth.).
Why suppose that writing philosophy is itself an inventive endeavor? Professor Sher acknowledges the declare is perhaps met with skepticism:
If [the idea that writing philosophy is itself making a kind of art] is just not instantly obvious, it’s in all probability as a result of most revealed philosophy is just not significantly suave. A lot of it bristles with unilluminating acronyms, pointless formalism, stultifying bulletins about what will probably be completed (and, once more later, what has been completed), and nested sequences of subordinate clauses that learn like rental agreements.
However, he says, these supposedly unartful qualities needs to be as a substitute understood as descriptions of features of the creative medium:
Removed from undercutting the concept philosophers are working inside an art-form, these annoyances solely carry out the demanding nature of the conventions that outline the shape. Working philosophers who need to create one thing lovely should reconcile the inflexible formal and mental necessities of most journals and (to a lesser extent) e-book publishers with the traditional vary of literary necessities—readability and magnificence, economic system of expression, accessibility and intelligibility, aptness of phrase selection, fluidity in making transitions, appropriateness of degree of diction, writerly tact, and regard for the proportions and general form of the work, to call just some.
The strain between reality and wonder is endemic to many types of artwork, however inside philosophy it’s proper there on the floor and it shapes the conventions that outline the shape. And, as a result of it does, the criticism that philosophical essays are too inference- and argument-heavy to rely as artwork isn’t any extra reliable than the criticism that haikus are too compressed.
Sher himself doesn’t suppose that conceiving of writing philosophy as a type of making artwork can itself present a satisfying account of the purpose of writing philosophy, however nonetheless as an interpretation of the character of philosophical work it has its enchantment.
