Couldn’t agree with you (and Ron Sandler) more on the “reasons, arguments, justifications, and evidence” spread of philosophical inquiry.
And I think this characterization of philosophy as an inquiry into the most general of phenomena thus, accommodates analytical and experimental sides of philosophy quite well. It is a vague characterization, yet productive and promising.

Thanks for posting those quotes. I’m not sure I like the “concepts are our lens” element of the Blackburn (pushy about a particular view of what philosophy is about), but I see that it might be useful. The Midgley bit is quite funny.

Mark:

That is great! I heard once of a similar move being made by claiming one was an ontologist (seems like they might study cancer but perhaps best not to ask).

« The word “philosophy” carries unfortunate connotations: impractical, unworldly, weird. I suspect that all philosophers and philosophy students share that moment of silent embarrassment when someone innocently asks us what we do. I would prefer to introduce myself as doing conceptual engineering. For just as the engineer studies the structure of material things, so the philosopher studies the structure of thought. Understanding the structure involves seeing how parts function and how they interconnect. It means knowing what would happen for better or worse if changes were made. This is what we aim at when we investigate the structures that shape our view of the world. Our concepts or ideas form the mental housing in which we live. We may end up proud of the structures we have built. Or we may believe that they need dismantling and starting afresh. But first, we have to know what they are. »
« To sum up: our ideas and concepts can be compared with the lenses through which we see the world. In philosophy the lens is itself the topic of study. »
Simon Blackburn, Think – A compelling introduction to philosophy, Introduction

« Is philosophy like plumbing ? […]
Plumbing and philosophy are both activities that arise because elaborate cultures like ours have, beneath their surface, a fairly complex system which is usually unnoticed, but which sometimes goes wrong. In both cases, this can have serious consequences. Each system supplies vital needs for those who live above it. Each is hard to repair when it does go wrong, because neither of them was ever consciously planned as a whole. There have been many ambitious attempts to reshape both of them. But, for both, existing complications are usually too widespread to allow a completely new start.
Neither system ever had a single designer who knew exactly what needs it would have to meet. Instead, both have grown imperceptibly over the centuries in the sort of way that organisms grow, and are constantly being altered piecemeal to suit changing demands as the ways of life above them have branched out. Both are therefore now very intricate. When trouble arises, specialized skill is needed if there is to be any hope of locating it and putting it right.
Here, however, we run into the first striking difference between the two cases. About plumbing, everybody accepts this need for trained specialists. About philosophy, many people – especially British people -, not only doubt the need, they are often sceptical about whether the underlying system even exists at all. It is much more deeply hidden. When the concepts we are living by work badly, they don’t usually drip audibly through the ceiling or swamp the kitchen floor. They just quietly distort and obstruct our thinking. »
Mary Midgley, Utopias, Dolphins and Computers : Problems of Philosophical Plumbing, Routledge, 1996, p. 1-2

Thanks for the comments. I like the study of wisdom idea but always worry that it invites students to think philosophy is like sitting around a bonfire talking nonsense about big ideas (which may in the end be accurate!). I can see how in combination with your essay, this impression would be quickly dispelled (great essay by the way…I didn’t see a link to it in your comment so interested parties can find it at: http://phdwithninekids.blogspot.com/2008/12/whats-it-like-to-be-philosopher-mom.html).

Cheers.