Metaphysics in Ordinary Language

For Stanley Rosen, "philosophy must begin with a careful consideration of ordinary or everyday life as the context within which occur the dislocation and problems that demand extraordinary theoretical and analytical measures." Without that grounding in the everyday, or an ability to have its general principles expressed in ordinary language, philosophy becomes a set of "arbitrary rhetorical assertions" of which evaluation is impossible. Rosen explores this and related themes in several of the essays here; he also does a solid job of restating the positions of the ancients and the moderns in contemporary language, addressing such awkward problems as whether the pursuit of reason really does lead to happiness. Rosen is no popularizer, though, so a background in the history of philosophy, particularly but not limited to the ancient Greeks, will come in handy here.