Question How do philosophers maintain their mental health? Athletes might expect to acquire more physical injuries than non-athletes because they play more sport and because they attempt to push back boundaries (of what the human body can achieve). By analogy, philosophers perhaps might expect to experience more threats to their psychological integrity given they often confront things that non-philosophers might not like to confront, and because some of them also endeavour to push back boundaries (of what the human mind can conceive). In so far as the analogy is not riddled with false assumptions and dodgy reasoning, how do philosophers keep themselves sane? Do you warm-up and warm-down, for example?

Accepted:

November 23, 2008