"Journal of Education Culture and Society" 2015_2

What Good is Philosophy?

IVONA NOVAK

University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciencies

Sveučilišna avenija 4, HR-51000 Rijeka, Croatia

E-mail address: ivona.novak88@gmail.com

IDA MAHMUTEFENDIĆ

University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciencies

Sveučilišna avenija 4, HR-51000 Rijeka, Croatia

E-mail address: ida.mahmutefendic@domzdravlja-pgz.hr

ABSTRACT

The renowned status of philosophy and its significant historical tradition indicate there is a great value in the field and that it should be studied. Nonetheless, philosophers often find themselves being asked about the value of philosophy. On most occasions, the value in question is an instrumental value, concerned with the requirement for the study merely to yield some practical results. Another way of approaching the problem is to ask about the value of philosophy in itself. We call this an intrinsic value of something or value that is not a means for acquiring something else. In this paper, we will argue that the worth of philosophy lies in its ability to teach the human mind how to think. Our argument will account for both instrumental and intrinsic values of the study. We will also show that the argument holds regardless of what account about the nature of philosophy we adopt.

Key words:

Nature of philosophy, instrumental and intrinsic value, logic, critical thinking.

DOI: 10.15503/jecs20152.11.19  pdf full version