This paper seeks to locate “public philosophy” in the overall discipline of academic philosophy. Public philosophy is defined as professional philosophers as engaging philosophically with non-students or professional philosophers; it is one element of a larger “public humanities” movement, at least in the United States. I argue that although public philosophy does have some truth-seeking and civic-educational elements, its primary function is as a form of individual and collective self-exploration. It is a wide-ranging conversation about culture and meaning in life, and a moment of intersection between philosophical theories and their application. I will show that public philosophy is a practice, as Alasdair MacIntyre describes it, and that it may be understood as a modern form of the “quest” as he describes the term After Virtue. In short, public philosophy does not serve only a functional role, but is a good in itself. It is therefore, as much an exercise in metaphysics as it is a project within logic and social and political philosophy
Discussion to the Lecture.
