Today, it’s sometimes seen as if religion was somehow opposed to the rational inquiry that is “proper” philosophy, but this was not always the case. Christian philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, Islamic thought – in their own time and place, they have all been (and still are) considered mainstream philosophy.

Philosophy also has never been confined to academic, analytic thought. Sartre and Camus wrote much of their philosophy into their works of fiction, their novels, literary essays and theatre plays. Philosophy has been expressed in poems (for example, in German Romanticism), in works of physics and mathematics (for example, the philosophy of quantum physics), in archery, painting and flower arrangements (in traditional Japanese culture). The contemporary blindness of academic philosophy to all these forms of wisdom is tragic and leads to a sterile, academic discipline that revolves only around itself, without interacting any more with the wider culture around it. Academic philosophers are quick to complain when philosophy departments in universities are closed down, but are they actually able to justify why society needs them if they never give anything valuable back?

“Philo-sophy,” the word, means the love (philia) for wisdom (sophia). Surely there are more places where sophia can be found than just metaontology and modal logic?

Religions have always told stories that were meant to educate, to shape the way people thought, and to create a common moral framework within which society could operate. And, historically, the splendid philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity have had a tremendous influence on human history and culture throughout the ages. Certainly more than the works of Frege, Wittgenstein or even Heidegger.

Plato and perfect circles

So let’s go back for a moment to the beginning of Western philosophy proper – which also is the beginning of much of what later would become Christian thought – and to Plato, originator of much of Western philosophy, but also of how we generally think of the Christian “beyond,” paradise, or the place where God resides.

To understand Plato, consider a circle drawn onto a piece of paper. This certainly will not be a true circle. It will be irregular at places, perhaps it will not even close properly. But that doesn’t matter. We can easily recognise that it is …

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