A Community of the Question: On Philosophical Friends and Foes. Issue 1 (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vanhoutte, Kristof K. P.
• Is Part Of: Comparative and continental philosophy. Volume 9:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 5
• Page End: 21
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Aristotle -- community (of the question) -- Jacques Derrida -- eros -- friendship -- philosophy -- university; Philosophy, Comparative -- Periodicals; Philosophy, European -- Periodicals; Art -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Literature -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 105
• DOI: 10.1080/17570638.2017.1308106
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-0638

Abstract

ABSTRACT: That philosophy exists, that it is possible, and that it has (and could still have) a future depends first and foremost on the existence of philosophers (necessarily considered in the plural). If the presence of philosophers is fundamental for the existence of the philosophical enterprise, then it can be easily deduced that, without philosophers, there would be no philosophy. If they come necessarily in the plural (as more than one), how should they, however, interact? Is philosophy a mere interaction among philosophers, or is it a cooperation of philosophers? But maybe it is something different still. The concept of philosophy, in its original Greek understanding, reveals how this interaction can be understood in a provocative but very interesting way: as friendship. Philosophy as philo-sophy, as friendship of wisdom. Said differently, philosophy as a community (of friends) that gather around the question of wisdom and knowledge. This essay attempts to think philosophy according to its being φιλεῖν τὸ σοφόν.