An Essay In Universal Semantics (topoi Library)
by Achille Varzi /
1999 / English / PDF
3.7 MB Download
Like the journal TOPOl, the TOPOl Library is based on the
assumption that philosophy is a lively, provocative, delightful
activity, which constantly challenges our inherited habits,
painstakingly elaborates on how things could be different, in other
stories, in counterfactual situations, in alternative possible
worlds. Whatever its ideology, whether with the intent of
uncovering a truer structure of reality or of shooting our anxiety,
of exposing myths or of following them through, the outcome of
philosophical activity is always the destabilizing, unsettling
generation of doubts, of objections, of criticisms. It follows that
this activity is intrinsically a dialogue, that philosophy is first
and foremost philosophical discussion, that it requires bringing
out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic
attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to
articulate one's approach, to make it richer, more thoughtful, more
open to variation and play. And it follows that the spirit which
one brings to this activity must be one of tolerance, of always
suspecting one's own blindness and consequently looking with
unbiased eye in every comer, without fearing to pass a (fallible)
judgment on what is there but also without failing to show interest
and respect.
Like the journal TOPOl, the TOPOl Library is based on the
assumption that philosophy is a lively, provocative, delightful
activity, which constantly challenges our inherited habits,
painstakingly elaborates on how things could be different, in other
stories, in counterfactual situations, in alternative possible
worlds. Whatever its ideology, whether with the intent of
uncovering a truer structure of reality or of shooting our anxiety,
of exposing myths or of following them through, the outcome of
philosophical activity is always the destabilizing, unsettling
generation of doubts, of objections, of criticisms. It follows that
this activity is intrinsically a dialogue, that philosophy is first
and foremost philosophical discussion, that it requires bringing
out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic
attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to
articulate one's approach, to make it richer, more thoughtful, more
open to variation and play. And it follows that the spirit which
one brings to this activity must be one of tolerance, of always
suspecting one's own blindness and consequently looking with
unbiased eye in every comer, without fearing to pass a (fallible)
judgment on what is there but also without failing to show interest
and respect.
