Editor’s Note
Dear reader,
In this first issue of The Garden of Ideas we are heavily indebted to the team of people who have made this publication possible. Most of all, we are grateful to the contributors, who have volunteered to share their writing with us and contribute to the broader philosophical conversation not just at the UW but everywhere.
Ludwig Wittgenstein called philosophy an activity in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. This idea does not originate with him, but it does reveal something unique about philosophy as a discipline. While disciplines like the natural sciences are dedicated to solving problems and then moving on to new ones, philosophers are always answering in effect the same questions, and have never solved a problem, but have rather only given a new perspective on it. As such we can view philosophy not in the spirit of solving problems, but rather in the spirit of Lessing.
That is, in the search for truth rather than actually obtaining it.
Our journal is a small part of this search. Each quarter we will publish both academic papers and other forms of philosophizing. Our goal is to expand the means of inquiry to such an extent that the discourse of philosophy is itself enriched, which should be the goal of philosophy in general. As such we are contributing to the perennial conversation on the most important issues humans are faced with. In doing so we hope to share new perspectives on old topics, and to elucidate these problems, even if only in a small way.
Sincerely,
Braeden Giaconi
Editor-in-Chief