Showing papers on "Upper ontology published in 1963"

Ontology and the categories of existence

Abstract: There is an old saying which every Student of philosophy sooner or later encounters to the effect that 'philosophy bakes no bread'. In pithy terms it expresses the conviction that the pursuit of philosophy has no practical consequences. (One must exclude, of course, the possibility of making one's livelihood from the teaching of philosophy äs a practical consequence. The fact that one can receive pay for the pursuit of philosophy does not prpve that philosophy is of practical value but only that one may be paid for engaging in a useless occupation.) One might take this desclaimer äs an expression of pride or of contrition. If one looks upon the baking of bread äs a vulgär occupation, äs many do, it suggests that philosophers have higher and more noble pursuits. To say frankly to the neophyte that philosophy is useless may appeal to his higher nature while, at the same time, forestalling his objections about the lack of concrete results. Or it may frighten him off. Not a few students and ordinary men are affronted by what they take to be the prideful arrogance and worldly disdain of the philosopher. They may and often do construe his disclaimer more äs a declaration of bankruptcy than the assertion of title to an extra-mundane order of existence. If, on the one .hand, to proclaim the uselessness of philosophy is to assert its nobility äs an end in itself, it is, also, to dissociate it from the worid of ordinary experience. In our time, the philosophical pendulum has swung between the two extremes of practicality and detadiment. The Pragmatists wanted desperately for philosophy to bake bread-in fact, for it to be the Master Baker. As Dewey saw it, the philosopher should be privy to the receipe of receipes, the method of methods. Renouncing the role of the noble though remote aristocrat, the Pragmatists sought to make philosophy relevant to experience in its every detail. And, for a time at least, they succeeded magnificently. Seidom in the history of western culture has a philosophical vision enjoyed such a pervasive influence upon a society. Althoug it has long since passed out of vogue, its effects are still visible among us. Pragmatism will doubtless be incorporated.within the American Philosophie tradition äs an essential element, reminding us that philosophy can ignore the baking of bread only at its peril. In spite of its concern with practice, there was a tension within pragmatism because of its dual commitment to empiricism and naturalism. Whereas for William James, empiricism was the overriding principle such that even mystical experiences could be taken at face value, Dewey's empiricism was shaped and circumscribed by his espousal of a thoroughgoing naturalism. Moreover, Dewey had seriously compromised the autonomy of philosophy in attempting to pattern it after the natural •