Why Philosophize?Why Philosophize? is a series of lectures given by Jean-François Lyotard to students at the Sorbonne embarking on their university studies. The circumstances obliged him to be both clear and concise: at the same time, his lectures offer a profound and far-reaching meditation on how essential it is to philosophize in a world where philosophy often seems irrelevant, outdated, or inconclusive. Lyotard begins by drawing on Plato, Proust and Lacan to show that philosophy is a never-ending desire - for wisdom, for the ‘other’. In the second lecture he draws on Heraclitus and Hegel to explore the close relation between philosophy and history: the same restlessness, the same longing for a precarious unity, drives both. In his third lecture, Lyotard examines how philosophy is a form of utterance, both communicative and indirect. Finally, he turns to Marx, exploring the extent to which philosophy can be a transformative action within the world. These wonderfully accessible lectures by one of the most influential philosophers of the last 50 years will attract a wide readership, since, as Lyotard says, ‘How can one not philosophize?’ They are also an excellent introduction to Lyotard’s mature thought, with its emphasis on the need for philosophy to bear witness, however obliquely, to a recalcitrant reality. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Why Philosophize? Four lectures given to firstyear students at the Sorbonne OctoberNovember 1964 | 15 |
1 Why desire? | 17 |
2 Philosophy and origin | 44 |
3 On philosophical speech | 70 |
4 On philosophy and action | 100 |
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Common terms and phrases
able absence action activity Alcibiades allow already answer apparently beauty beginning belong comes common completely contraries course critique death desire discourse Eros everything example exchange existence expression faced fact father fragment give given grasp hand happens harmony Hegel Heraclitus human idea interest lack language least lecture living logic loss of unity lost Lyotard Marx Marxism master meaning merely movement namely never object oppositions origin ourselves perhaps person philoso philosophical speech philosophy possess possible presence problem question reality realize reason reflection relation relationship remains result seek sense separation short shows side signs silence simply social society Socrates speak speech starts takes tells theme theory things thought tion transformation true turns understand unity uttered wants whole wisdom woman words