' Philosophy '...

Philosophy refuses to regard itself in an exclusive sense. It admits all labeled points of view. But it refuses to limit itself to any of them. For they deal with apparent truth. The point of view which deals with real truth is really no point of view at all.

The would-be philosopher should not feel bound by labels, categories, and other fences which people want to put on others simply because they themselves live quite willingly surrounded by such fences and cannot understand someone who refuses to do so. Philosophy is a path which ends in the pathless--a way to the inner freedom which comes with truth.

It would be difficult to put philosophy into any category of its own for it has links with everything and with nothing, with particular religions and with no religion at all, with particular metaphysical systems and with none, with the different theologies and creeds, and so on; it has no organization and no one founder or apostle.



-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? >
Chapter 1: Toward Defining Philosophy > # 152, 153, 154
Paul Brunton