Ideas from 'Interview with Baggini and Stangroom' by Ray Monk [2001], by Theme Structure

[found in 'New British Philosophy' by Baggini,J/Stangroom,J [Routledge 2002,0-415-24346-7]].

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1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / e. Philosophy as reason

6851	We overvalue whether arguments are valid, and undervalue whether they are interesting

			Full Idea: We encourage students to be concerned with whether an argument is valid or not, and we don't encourage them much to consider the question of whether the argument is interesting or not.
			From: Ray Monk (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.16)
			A reaction: What do you make of arguments which are very interesting, but (unfortunately) totally invalid? That said, this is a nice comment. A philosopher cannot contemplate too long or too deeply on the question of what is really 'interesting'.

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / c. Purpose of ethics

6850	Wittgenstein pared his life down in his search for decency

			Full Idea: One of the most conspicuous things about Wittgenstein is that, on the ethics side, he pared his life down to the minimum, so as to make as central as possible his search for decency, the drive to be a decent person.
			From: Ray Monk (Interview with Baggini and Stangroom [2001], p.14)
			A reaction: It rather looks as if decency was quite an effort for him, as he had a rather waspish temperament, and people found it hard to get close to him. On the whole, though, he sounds like good company, as do nearly all the great philosophers.