The Challenge of Philosophy - Softcover

This book presents a selection of Professor Rickman's essays which reflect his view of philosophy and defend it against attacks on two fronts. On the 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 abtruse 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.
These misrepresentations or misunderstandings betray the great traditions of philosophy represented by Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche - to mention just a few outstanding philosophers. Though they engaged in metaphysical speculations and developed intricate arguments not easy to follow, they yet dealt with the universal problems and offered solutions for them. It is not a new idea that philosophy is about how to live as a human being and a reminder of it is not superfluous. The book includes brilliant expositions of hermeneutics, linguistic analysis, postmodernism and deconstructionism.

Hans Peter Rickman taught philosophy first at the University of Hull and later at the City University London, where he is still teaching as a visiting Professor.