download walter kaufmann faith of a heretic

So you want to mold a new order? Act in virtue and inspire others. Philosophy is the serious and dutiful pursuit of honest intentions, actions and virtues. Stop talking about changing the world, pour that 40 ounce of Jack Daniels you managed to smuggle into the dorm down the sink and *actually* change the world, starting with yourself.Īsk yourself: what good will this thought bring about? What good will this action bring about? What good will this judgment bring about? What good will this decision bring about? Cultivate virtues, live them, with no speaking, only actions. Philosophy should be used as a practical vessel to attain wisdom, endure misfortunes, temper our desires, achieve excellence, cultivate clear judgment and conquer life, by storm, by the throat. These ‘students’ are a creation of the modern times in the past philosophy was a way of life (a high duty), not a convenient way to appease angry parents when you couldnâ€™t quite keep that 2.0 GPA in biochemical engineering. Instead they drink themselves to a stupor six days of the week and spend the remainder recovering from their escapism.

Today philosophy degrees seem to be handed out liberally at most colleges to drug using pseudo intellectuals who donâ€™t actually live their words. Philosophy means making sure your actions, decisions and judgments are honest. No concern about doing whatâ€™s right or sculpting this realm, just stagnation and elitist segregation.Īs Walter Kaufmann so precisely put it in The Faith of a Heretic, philosophy is the quest for honesty: a lifelong campaign of indelible and fanatical resistance against falsity and the often unchecked designs of sophists. Too much nose-raised talk and not enough action in contemporary academic â€˜philosophyâ€™ â€“ nothing is being said, hollow words and empty propositions blathering without conviction. Living without pretension makes you a philosopher. Acting in conformance to your theorems makes you a philosopher.

Living your words makes you a philosopher. Half heartedly pondering on esoteric things, ultimate meanings, and running in circles of analysis doesn’t make you a philosopher. Â€œIs it reasoning alone that makes a philosopher?â€

Download walter kaufmann faith of a heretic