Diverse intro texts on 'what is philosophy?'

In our July "how can we help you?" thread, JR writes in:

I have a teaching question and request for recommendations from readers: I regularly teach the introductory philosophy course at my institution, which is required as part of the core curriculum for all undergraduates and is generally taken fall or spring semester of the students' first year. Given that this is typically their first exposure to philosophy, I have found it helpful to begin the course with a unit on "What is Philosophy?". For this unit, I have had great success using Midgley's "Philosophical Plumbing" essay, and Russell's "The Value of Philosophy" (chapter from Problems of Philosophy), but I'm looking for some different texts of this sort, ideally from more diverse voices and perspectives: short, discussion-generating takes on what philosophy is or why it is important that take a stronger stand than the usual bland introductions from textbooks, but also do not presuppose much background or use a lot of technical terms

Great question! Although it's not very short, the paper that immediately comes to my mind is Kristie Dotson's, "How is this paper philosophy?". Do any readers have any suggestions?

Comments

[Anon]

I would look at the wonderful archive found in Dotson's paper and build a unit from those references that culminates in the Dotson piece.

(*cough* Kristie has an "e" in it)

[Malcolm]

I would suggest also looking towards texts which talk about the purpose of intellectual inquiry, reasoning, and so on, broadly speaking, even if they don't use the English term "philosophy." I've used the opening of the Nyāyasūtra to some useful effect, juxtaposed with Russell. Xunzi's discussion of moral education and the transformative nature of learning could be fruitful, as well as Kongzi (Confucius) on the Great Learning, which links knowledge to politics and ethics.

[Evan]

Thanks for the article. It was insightful. To me, philosophy is many things. But one particular aspect of philosophy to me (at least) is a form of self-care.

I’ve always been an analytical person ever since I can remember. I can’t shut it off. It’s who I am and that’s how I was born I guess. Sometimes, I envy my sibling for not having an overly analytical mind. She has it so easy in this area; not having to think and analyze things so much seems like bliss. Nowadays, I mostly read and do philosophy for nobody else but myself really. When things come clear to me, I get great joy out of them even if there is no “end goal.”

The urge for a praxis conception of philosophy seems to me also a symptom that philosophy has lost sight of its wisdom attribute. This is understandable: smart and intelligent people are plenty in the academy, but wise people are a few.