dephilosophize

present singular third person dephilosophizes · participle present dephilosophizing · participle past dephilosophized · past dephilosophized

1. To remove philosophy (from): to replace abstract models with objective observation and concrete description.

   If we dephilosophize the sciences - what is left - earth, air, and water.

   1984, Kathleen M. Wheeler, German Aesthetic and Literary Criticism

   2 more examples

   Furthermore, there has been a historical tendency in medicine to "dephilosophize" and shift from "armchair speculation" to the discovery of “a web of invariances that form the basis for today's control of Somatic man.".

   1995, Peter Augustine Lawler, A Question of Values: Johan Galtung's Peace Research, page 56

   By viewing his task in this way, as John Hinde puts it, 'Burckhardt was not just trying to dephilosophize history; he wanted to aestheticize it in order to capture the whole of human society and history as an aesthetic product in which art and free spiritual creativity have world-making significance.'

   2004, Richard Franklin Sigurdson, Jacob Burckhardt's Social and Political Thought, page 123

2. To make or become unphilosophical.

   Philosopher, dephilosophize yourself, and then take off your clothes. Oh, God, what self-esteem, what ignorance, what malice, what shrunken thinking, and all in one person!

   1963, The Atlantic Monthly - Volume 212, page 71

   3 more examples

   Opinion again, while improved, interesting as it may be to its holders, has no special interest for philosophy; to press philosophy into its service is to dephilosophize it.

   1872 November, Shadworth H. Hodgson, “The Future of Metaphysic”, in The Contemporary Review, volume 20, page 831

   They have helped me to "dephilosophize," to shun the allures of culture and to place myself on the margin of convictions acquired through long philosophical inquiry on the subject of scientific thinking.

   1973, Vernon W. Gras, European literary theory and practice, page 266

   To dephilosophize or unphilosophize, to embrace the insult of being 'unphilosophical' as one's own, because the alternative of being recognized as 'proper' comes at the cost of also being a cliche.

   2009, John Mullarkey, Refractions of reality: philosophy and the moving image, page 214