Sense-Making from a Human Point of View

Abstract

Abstract This essay is an exploration of what it dubs the ‘artistic’ conception of philosophy. This conception has two components: first, the view of philosophy as a humanistic discipline that Bernard Williams advocates; and second, the view that the sense-making involved in philosophy is a creative exercise. The first of these components casts philosophy as anthropocentric, and stands opposed to scientism. The second casts philosophy as exploratory and open to radical innovation, and stands opposed to conservatism. In the course of the discussion, which proceeds via consideration of the distinction that is standardly drawn between ‘analytic’ philosophy and ‘continental’ philosophy, an internal tension in the artistic conception is identified. This is the tension between its anthropocentrism, which requires that philosophers make sense of things from a human point of view, and its anti-conservatism, which requires that they be prepared to make sense of things from beyond that point of view. An attempt is made to resolve the tension by arguing that the anthropocentrism in question need not be any more than provisional. In the final section of the essay some of Spinoza’s ideas are considered as a case study. The importance of proceeding with care in philosophy is emphasized, and it is urged that, even if the anthropocentrism in question need not be any more than provisional, it had better not be any less than that either: it had better not be abandoned altogether.