Talking philosophy

Talking philosophy: a literary dialogue on how to do philosophy is een literair geschreven filosofische dialoog over de verhouding tussen filosofische stijl en inhoud.

“How should a philosopher express himself? Like a sphinx, a precise professor, a depressed clergyman, a hermit in ecstasy, a provident lord chancellor, a midwife on the market square, an analyst, prophet, consultant, or as a physician at the befuddled language user’s bedside? What is the connection between the style in which a philosopher writes, the genre (s)he chooses, and the type of philosophical convictions (s)he wants to propagate? Or can the same views equally well be expressed in all genres? This is the question that lies at the origin of Lars Cornelissen’s clever piece.

“What appeared to be ‘just’ a scholarly study on the relation between philosophical urges and the literary genres and styles in which they are expressed, proved to be a literary jewel. What better way to treat this question, Cornelissen concluded, than to approach it through the philosophical method par excellence, the Socratic dialogue? With this dialogue – eo ipso! ipso facto! the old-fashioned lover of philosophical jargon might cry out – Cornelissen has clearly answered his original question in the affirmative. But he has done much more than that: his literary exercise on the interaction between genre, style and contents has become nothing less than a witty, but instructive survey of the variegated landscape of contemporary philosophy.”