Refracting Philosophy

Abstract

If its name is to be honored, a refractive philosophy is one that intends to break, shatter, or tear apart conventional philosophies —orthodox or heterodox, administered or mundane— for with these terms scholars translate the Latin verb refringo, from which it comes and is derived. A verb whose meanings range from ‘to destroy a tyrannical power’, used by Cicero’s friend Cornelius Nepos, to ‘to mumble words’, used by the naturalist Pliny the Elder. A refractive philosophy, then, must be made of very special stuff if it is to reflect philosophies, breaking, shattering, or tearing them apart.