The four points of the compass
Date
2012
Authors
Alexander, J.
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Advisor
Supervisor
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Source Title
Philosophy
Print ISSN
0031-8191
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Volume
87
Issue
1
Pages
79 - 107
Language
English
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Journal Title
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Abstract
Philosophy has four forms: wonder, faith, doubt and scepticism. These are not separate categories, but separate ideal possibilities. Modern academic philosophy has fallen, for several centuries, into an error: which is the error of supposing that philosophy is only what I call doubt. Philosophy may be doubt: indeed, it is part of my argument that this is undeniably one element of, or one possibility in, philosophy; but doubt is only one of four points of the compass. In this essay I indicate the nature of each point of the compass as it has been found in the history of philosophy. © 2012 The Royal Institute of Philosophy.