Dietrich von Hildebrand - What Is Philosophy?

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

WHAT IS
PHILOSOPHY?

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Introduction by Robert Sokolowski

HILDEBRAND
PROJECT

First Edition

Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1960.

Second Edition

Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1973.

Third Edition

New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1991.

Published in German as Was ist Philosophie?

Regensburg/Stuttgart: Habbel/Kohlhammer, 1976.

Published 2021 by Hildebrand Press

1235 University Blvd., Steubenville, Ohio, 43952

Copyright 2021 Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project

All rights reserved

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data

Names: Von Hildebrand, Dietrich, 18891977, author. | Sokolowski, Robert, author.

Title: What Is philosophy? / Dietrich von Hildebrand; introduction by Robert Sokolowski.

Description: Includes bibliographical references and index. | Steubenville, OH: Hildebrand Press, 2020.

Identifiers: LCCN: 2021902591 | ISBN: 978-1-939773-17-3

Subjects: LCSH Philosophy. | Knowledge, Theory of. | Phenomenology. | BISAC PHILOSOPHY /

Epistemology | PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Phenomenology

Classification: LCC BD161 .V66 2020 | DDC 100--dc23

Set in Adobe Caslon

Typeset by Kachergis Book Design

Cover design by Marylouise McGraw

Cover Image: The Geographer by Johannes Vermeer, in the Stdel Museum, Frankfurt am Main.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, used in accordance with Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0.

Front Cover Font: Circular Bold by Laurenz

Brunner Produced by Christopher T. Haley

www.hildebrandproject.org

JOSEF SEIFERT

in Liebe zugeeignet

Contents

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Dietrich von Hildebrand was born in Florence in 1889, and studied philosophy under Adolf Reinach, Max Scheler, and Edmund Husserl. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1914. He distinguished himself with many publications in moral philosophy, in social philosophy, in the philosophy of the interpersonal, and in aesthetics. He taught in Munich, Vienna, and New York. In the 1930s, he was one of the strongest voices in Europe against Nazism. He died in New Rochelle, NY in 1977.

Hildebrand Project

We advance the rich tradition of Christian personalism, especially as developed by Dietrich von Hildebrand and Karol Wojtyla (Pope St. John Paul II), in the service of intellectual and cultural renewal.

Our publications, academic programs, and public events introduce the great personalist thinkers and witnesses of the twentieth century. Animated by a heightened sense of the mystery and dignity of the human person, they developed a personalism that sheds new light on freedom and conscience, the religious transcendence of the person, the relationship between individual and community, the love between man and woman, and the life-giving power of beauty. We connect their vision of the human person with the great traditions of Western and Christian thought, and draw from their personalism in addressing the deepest needs and aspirations of our contemporaries. For more information, please visit: www.hildebrandproject.org

Editorial Board

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Rmi Brague

University of Paris, Sorbonne, Emeritus Romano Guardini Chair of Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Emeritus

Rocco Buttiglione

John Paul II Chair for Philosophy and History of European Institutions Pontifical Lateran University

Antonio Calcagno

Kings University College at The University of Western Ontario

Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz

Technische Universitt Dresden, Emerita Hochschule Heiligenkreuz

Dana Gioia

Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture University of Southern California

John Haldane

University of St. Andrews Baylor University

Alice von Hildebrand

Widow of Dietrich von Hildebrand

Joseph Koterski, SJ

Fordham University

Sir Roger Scruton

Writer and Philosopher

Josef Seifert

Dietrich von Hildebrand Institute of Philosophy and Realist Phenomenological Research

D. C. Schindler

Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family Washington, DC

Christoph Cardinal Schnborn

Archbishop of Vienna

Fritz Wenisch

University of Rhode Island

Student of Dietrich von Hildebrand

Special Thanks

We gratefully acknowledge the vision and generosity of the many friends who have supported the publication of this book.

EXTRAORDINARY SUPPORT

Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Robert L. Luddy Patricia C. Lynch James N. Perry, Jr. Alice von Hildebrand Chiaroscuro Foundation

PATRONS

Daniel and Teresa Cotter Madeline L. Cottrell John and Pia Crosby

BENEFACTORS

Scott and Martha Blandford Hedy K. Boelte John F. Cannon The Rafael Madan and Lilian Casas Foundation Allison Coates and Joshua Kneubuhl Edward and Alice Ann Grayson Shirley and Pistol Haley Julia Harrison Roy and Elizabeth Heyne Timothy J. Joyce Colin Moran William and Robin Mureiko Elaine C. Murphy William H. Rooney Duncan C. Sahner Dan and Annie Schreck Stanley Stillman Richard and Rose Tondra

FRIENDS

Andrew Cannon Michael Caponiti Ronda Chervin

Student of Dietrich von Hildebrand

by Robert Sokolowski

Dietrich von Hildebrands classical volume on the nature of philosophical thinking was published sixty years ago in 1960, the year in which he retired from teaching at Fordham University. Its reprinting in 1973 and 1991 and its republication now show its continuing importance.

The book has two qualities that recommend it to a contemporary reader. It is, first, an explanation of what philosophy is. The title of the book is a question, and the book itself is the answer. It is a theoretic and contemplative achievement, expressed in the authors own voice. He draws on both classical and modern sources, but in this book he does not formally comment on them and rarely quotes them. He takes responsibility himself for what he says and speaks about the issues directly, not through the teachings of others, valuable as they may be. Since the book appeared when he retired from teaching, it can be seen as a distilled sequel to the conversation he carried on with his students, who now have become his readers and not his interlocutors. The books second quality is that it bears witness to many of the thoughts that dominated European philosophy in the early decades of the twentieth century, when phenomenology and its associated forms of thinking were becoming prominent in the cultural world. The topics he treats and the terms he uses reflect the philosophical ideas that were active at that time. Many themes found in Husserl and Scheler, for example, are palpable in his text even though he may not expressly refer to them. The book, therefore, is both universal and particular; it addresses permanent issues in a straightforward, lucid style, and it also gives us the flavor of a certain lively and important moment in the history of philosophy. It is well worth reading for both reasons.