Still Life with White Jar, Orange and Book (1932-33) by Vilhelm Lundstrøm. Courtesy the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen For Margaret Macdonald, philosophical theories are akin to stories, meant to enlarge certain aspects of human life Peter West is an assistant professor in philosophy at Northeastern University London. ‘Philosophical theories are much more like good stories than scientific explanations.’ This provocative remark comes from the paper ‘Linguistic Philosophy and Perception’ (1953) by Margaret Macdonald. Macdonald was a figure at the institutional heart of British philosophy in the mid-20th century whose work, especially her views on the nature of philosophy itself, deserves to be … Continue reading Philosophy is an art