THE PHILOSOPHERS' PROJECT

Here is a bit of Philosophy jargon that will be new to programmers: "project".  It may best be explained via this excerpt from the world-wide best selling book,  Sophie's World...

THE PHILOSOPHER'S PROJECT

Here we are again! We'll go directly to today's lesson without detours around white rabbits and the like.

I'll outline very broadly the way people have thought about philosophy, from the ancient Greeks right up to our own day. But we'll take things in their correct order.

Since some philosophers lived in a different age--and perhaps in a completely different culture from ours--it is a good idea to try and see what each philosopher's project is. By this I mean that we must try to grasp precisely what it is that each particular philosopher is especially concerned with finding out. One philosopher might want to know how plants and animals came into being. Another might want to know whether there is a God or whether man has an immortal soul.

Once we have determined what a particular philosopher's project is, it is easier to follow his line of thought, since no one philosopher concerns himself with the whole of philosophy.