1 AUGUST 1992, Page 22

Sir: As well as worrying his curly head over `What

is philosophy for?', Paul Johnson might like to ponder a raft of similarly unanswerable questions. What is physics for? What is sculpture for? What are sym- phonies for? What is beauty for? What is life for?

Philosophy is what philosophers do. That he finds their activities unenlightening tells us more about Paul Johnson than it does about philosophy.

Winston Fletcher

Chapman's Farm, Dunsden Green, Reading