What is the point?
On the axis: The point of philosophy · the activity of philosophizing
Is philosophy's uselessness its very dignity, the one free knowledge pursued for nothing beyond itself, or a real defect next to the sciences and to action, like Thales falling into a well while watching the stars, to the laughter of the Thracian servant girl?
Justification
First science is born of wonder and is pursued for its own sake, not for its usefulness: like the free man, it is its own end. And the theoretical life, the activity of what is most divine in us, is the highest happiness. Yet Aristotle keeps a place for the practical aim: we do not study ethics to know what virtue is, but to become good.
This alone of all the sciences is free, for it alone exists for its own sake.Metaphysics, I.2 (982b)
Metaphysics, I.1-2 · Nicomachean Ethics, X.7-8 · Nicomachean Ethics, II.2 (1103b)
Anchors: Aristotle · Callicles · Hadot