"True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is"
- Victor Cousin
About this Quote
This quote by Victor Cousin speaks to the nature of approach as a discipline. It suggests that viewpoint does not create new ideas or theories, but rather it seeks to comprehend and explain existing ideas and theories. This is in contrast to other disciplines such as science, which typically looks for to produce new theories and concepts. By stressing the detailed nature of viewpoint, Cousin is recommending that approach is a discipline that seeks to understand the world around us, instead of to create something new. He is likewise recommending that philosophy is a discipline that is based upon observation and analysis, rather than on invention. In this method, philosophy is a discipline that looks for to comprehend the world around us, instead of to produce something brand-new.
"I think philosophers can do things akin to theoretical scientists, in that, having read about empirical data, they too can think of what hypotheses and theories might account for that data. So there's a continuity between philosophy and science in that way"
"What I mean by photographing as a participant rather than observer is that I'm not only involved directly with some of the activities that I photograph, such as mountain climbing, but even when I'm not I have the philosophy that my mind and body are part of the natural world"
