The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden

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If the activity of philosophy itself has necessary presuppositions—as it clearly does—exactly what are they?

If Whitehead answers that they are "the premises implicit in all reasoning," my answer is that they are our rock-bottom, basic beliefs. I mean such beliefs as that:

life is meaningful or has a rational aim;

the world is so ordered as to make pursuing this aim possible, including basing our expectations of the future on our experiences of the past; and

there is something properly called "validity," in the several forms of truth goodness, and beauty, as well as sincerity or authenticity, and, possibly, holiness or eternity, each constituting a domain of validity, distinct but inseparable from all the others.

1 October 2005

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