Why Read Difficult Philosophers With Fuzzy Ideas?

To at least test ideas, methods of reasoning, reading and communicating

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Introduction

Difficult tasks that require concentration and memory are often challenging enough to discourage many people, but they can also motivate others to attempt such mental acrobatics.

Interpreting philosophical texts, for example, often demands recalling numerous ideas from lengthy works and relating them to one another.

Additionally, understanding the context of these ideas or posing thought-provoking questions to challenge them can also be quite difficult.

Yet, these challenges apply to all of us living in society. At some point, we might need to compare our ideas or research with those of our peers, or critically evaluate lengthy texts with strong rhetorical skills.

Unfortunately, I see that it’s not so easy to recognize how important this activity is. In modern liberal times, it might seem that

as long as democracy — the will of the people — is respected, everything is fine. But this isn’t true.

Just because many people think the same thing doesn’t make it a true thought…