This book offers an alternative to the present prevailing approach to philosophy. For, there have never been so many professional philosophers as there are today, yet philosophy has never been so irrelevant. This is because according to today’s dominant philosophy, namely analytic philosophy, philosophy does not advance knowledge, but only aims to understand what we already know. As a result, philosophy deals with artifactual puzzles of no abiding significance. This contrasts with the fact that, at some stages of its historical development, philosophy has played a significant role in the advancement of knowledge. To overcome the present impasse of philosophy, this book proposes a view of philosophy as acquisition of knowledge, according to which philosophy can open new ways to knowledge and lead to the birth of new sciences.
1 Introduction.- Part I: The Ways of Philosophy.- 2 Philosophy at a
Crossroads.- 3 Philosophy and Understanding.- 4 Philosophy as Acquisition of
Knowledge.- 5 Against Philosophy as Acquisition of Knowledge.- 6 Methods of
Philosophy.- 7 Utility of Philosophy.- 8 Progress in Philosophy.- 9 Other
Philosophies Aimed at Knowledge.- Part II: The Ways of Knowledge.- 10 The
Nature of Knowledge.- 11 Knowledge and Reality.- 12 Knowledge and
Objectivity.- 13 Knowledge and Mind.- 14 Knowledge and Rationality.- 15
Knowledge and Method.- 16 Knowledge and Inference.- 17 Knowledge and Logic.-
18 Knowledge and Problem Solving.- 19 Knowledge and Perception.- 20 Knowledge
and Explanation.- 21 Knowledge and Emotions.- 22 Knowledge and
Naturalization.- Part III: Conclusion.- 23 Concluding Remarks.- Index.
I am emeritus professor at Sapienza University of Rome. I published the following books in Italian and English: Teoria della dimostrazione (Boringhieri, 1978); Le ragioni della logica (Laterza, 1998); Filosofia e matematica (Laterza, 2003); Perché ancora la filosofia (Laterza, 2008); Rethinking Logic: Logic in Relation to Mathematics, Evolution, and Method (Springer, 2013); Co-author with Mirella Capozzi, Breve storia della logica: DallUmanesimo al primo Novecento (Lulu Press, 2014); Rethinking Knowledge: The Heuristic View (Springer, 2017); The Making of Mathematics: Heuristic Philosophy of Mathematics (Springer, 2022); The Theory of Gödel (Springer, 2022).
