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An aid in asking the right questions: one use of history |
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Written by Michael R. Walker
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Tuesday, 27 April 2010 04:27 |
Robert Wolf offers a good summary of how spending time in the past ("an alien clime") is critical for creative thinking in the present:
"The important feature of presuppositions to be remarked on here is that they tend to be unconscious. The presuppositions we make we are apt to be unaware of; if a problem is wrongly posed because of such an unconscious assumption, the possibility of successful resolution of the problems is greatly reduced without bringing that assumption to light. Even more radically, the wrong problem itself may be posed because of such a presupposition. In such a situation, no amount of technical precision applied to the solution of the problem will be of any use. Indeed the more ingenuity brought to bear, the more harm done in creating the illusion that progress is being made. In such a situation, realization that a pseudo-problem is being investigated is the first step toward worthwhile philosophizing. Here is where I suggest that examination of philosophical work in an alien clime, such as the medieval period, can serve to open up the reality of alternative questions."
Robert G. Wolf, "The Philosophical Uses of Medieval Philosophy," Essays in Medieval Studies, vol. 1 (1984): 103.
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