Plato's Sun: An Introduction to Philosophy

Alan Belk is a sessional instructor in the Philosophy Department at the
University of Guelph.

Plato’s Sun is not an introduction to philosophy. It is the book that
everyone who claims to be a philosopher should be compelled to write
under the heading “What is philosophy?” Lawless uses dogmatism and
skepticism to frame his answer, but others would do it differently. The
point of the exercise is fundamentally Socratic: we cannot deal with
something until we can say what it is (or, perhaps, what it is not). So
this is more of a conclusion to philosophy—except that philosophy has
no conclusion (or so we who are employed as philosophers hope!).

The basic question addressed by Lawless is “Why does the philosopher
return to the cave?” His answer constitutes a summary of what, for
him, philosophy is, covering the major concerns of metaphysics,
epistemology, logic, ethics, and language. Early on, Lawless makes the
point that each of us brings a unique experience to the study of
philosophy, and we interpret what we study in the light of this
experience; this is preambulatory to saying that I disagree with much of
what he writes. I see too much concern with the presumptions of
metaphysics (I think that metaphysical knowledge is impossible, so
it’s not a burning issue) and the traditional idea that words may be
interpreted literally as well as metaphorically. Stephen Pinker (in The
Language Instinct) claims that language permits us to attempt to
manipulate the minds—and hence the actions—of others, and I take
this as my paradigm. This leads me away from realism in general, and
from referential use of language in particular, and into areas of
descriptive adequacy and intentionality. As a result, I want a
philosophy that is less grand and concerned more with the nature of
explanation than with the nature of what is explained, so my book would
concentrate on mind, science, and epistemology.