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Three Arguments for the Philosophical Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2018

Jeffrey Church
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Abstract

One of the many contributions of Postmodern Platos is that it raises an old question in the postmodern age: what is the value of philosophy? This essay finds and assesses three distinct arguments for the philosophical life in Zuckert's book, which she associates with Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Strauss. Philosophy, according to all three arguments, represents the highest life for human beings because it realizes our highest capacity, and it secures for our otherwise finite existence a measure of permanence. The arguments diverge on the question of the order and goodness of nature. The case for philosophy has relevance in our postmodern age, as we are driven to ask the question of the best life yet are unequipped to answer it.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 80 , Special Issue 2: Honoring Catherine H. Zuckert , Spring 2018 , pp. 209 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 2018 

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References

1 Zuckert, Catherine H., Postmodern Platos (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996)Google Scholar. Parenthetical references in text are to this work unless otherwise indicated.

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4 For further discussion of Aristotle's view of the value of the philosophical life, see Inglis, Kristen, “Philosophical Virtue: In Defense of the Grand End” in The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's “Nicomachean Ethics,” ed. Polansky, Ronald (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 263–87Google Scholar; Griswold, Charles L., “Happiness, Tranquillity, and Philosophy,” Critical Review 10, no. 1 (1996): 1–32, doi:10.1080/08913819608443407CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Burger, Ronna, Aristotle's Dialogue with Socrates: On the “Nicomachean Ethics” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), chap. 7Google Scholar; and Collins and Bartlett's commentary on Book X in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Bartlett, Robert C. and Collins, Susan D. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012)Google Scholar.

5 Cf. Zuckert, Catherine H., “Aristotle on the Limits and Satisfactions of Political Life,” Interpretation 11, no. 2 (1983): 185–206Google Scholar, for a discussion of Aristotle on the limits of the practical life.

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