Can Philosophy Exist?

Abstract

Near the beginning of this century an episode of note occurred in Vienna. In 1894 the University had commissioned Gustav Klimt to paint a series of panels depicting the triumph of light over darkness. The first panel that Klimt finished, in 1900, represented Philosophy. The Faculty, evidently, had hoped for something like Raphael's depiction of the School of Athens: Plato, Aristotle, perhaps Galileo and Hume and Kant and Mach, would discourse gravely whilst a suitably impressed crowd of bystanders looked on and learned.