Abstract

This volume presents a selection of Professor Rickman's essays published over a period of 40 years. They reflect his view of philosophy and defend it against attacks on two fronts. On one side the assault comes from a substantial proportion of professional philosophers particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world, who treat philosophy as a purely academic, highly technical subject, dealing merely with the clarification of concepts, the solving of logical puzzles and the refutation of similarly abstruse theories of fellow philosophers. On the other side there is the widespread popular view of philosophy as dealing with abstract problems remote from everyday life and invented by philosophers in their ivory towers. Both sides share a common premise: the uselessness of philosophy.