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Your thoughts on Philosophy

Started by GurrenLagann, February 19, 2013, 01:55:22 PM

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GurrenLagann

Well hey there, it's been about a month since I've been on, mainly because of school and work craziness (errgggggg).

Anywho, when last I was on there was quite a bit of bashing of philosophy, which actually got me to study up some on quite of few philosophical works and critiques over the last month.
And I'm not sure many here who refer to it as completely useless have really read much, if any, philosophical works or treatises, namely because they assume the primacy of science to answer questions of practically any sort, even those which science does not [currently] deal with (metaphysics comes to mind, and *potentially* moral/ethical concerns).

It also is haphazardly forgotten that more or less all scientific fields were pioneered and developed by philosophers.
Hell, even logic (including mathematics), which are invaluable to science, was formalized and developed by philosophers (namely Aristotle and Bertrand Russell).
Cosmogeny is another area that appears to be more yielding to philosophical investigations (if anything).
Atomism as well was thought of by and reflected on originally by philosophers (Democritus, Epicurus, etc).

It is my view that philosophy is of great importance and to dismiss it as plain useless because of science is to vindicate the usage of the pejorative form of "scientism" and to forget about the in-built assumptions built into the scientific method(s) and forget about the philosophy of science and not know about the history of philosophy. I understand why science is held so highly (look how it transforms our world), but some here take it too far in my view.

What are your thoughts on philosophy, and do you think some unbelievers are a bit too infatuated with science? (sorry if I come off as a bit whiny here, it's been my hobby-horse lately :P)
Which means that to me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can\'t give way, is the offer of something not worth having.
[...]
Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty & wisdom, will come to you that way.
-Christopher Hitchens

stromboli

Philosophy is useful. Strictly in my case, the problem comes when people get into all the more esoteric areas of discussion and start quoting from people I've never heard of. I don't have the interest or the time for that.

aitm

Quote from: "stromboli"esoteric


I find esoteric to be a pretentious and arrogant word used by stodgy and uppity.....er...never mind.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

stromboli

Quote from: "aitm"
Quote from: "stromboli"esoteric


I find esoteric to be a pretentious and arrogant word used by stodgy and uppity.....er...never mind.

And I use it every chance i get just to sound uppity.  :P

WitchSabrina

Quote from: "GurrenLagann"Well hey there, it's been about a month since I've been on, mainly because of school and work craziness (errgggggg).

Anywho, when last I was on there was quite a bit of bashing of philosophy, which actually got me to study up some on quite of few philosophical works and critiques over the last month.
And I'm not sure many here who refer to it as completely useless have really read much, if any, philosophical works or treatises, namely because they assume the primacy of science to answer questions of practically any sort, even those which science does not [currently] deal with (metaphysics comes to mind, and *potentially* moral/ethical concerns).

It also is haphazardly forgotten that more or less all scientific fields were pioneered and developed by philosophers.
Hell, even logic (including mathematics), which are invaluable to science, was formalized and developed by philosophers (namely Aristotle and Bertrand Russell).
Cosmogeny is another area that appears to be more yielding to philosophical investigations (if anything).
Atomism as well was thought of by and reflected on originally by philosophers (Democritus, Epicurus, etc).

It is my view that philosophy is of great importance and to dismiss it as plain useless because of science is to vindicate the usage of the pejorative form of "scientism" and to forget about the in-built assumptions built into the scientific method(s) and forget about the philosophy of science and not know about the history of philosophy. I understand why science is held so highly (look how it transforms our world), but some here take it too far in my view.

What are your thoughts on philosophy, and do you think some unbelievers are a bit too infatuated with science? (sorry if I come off as a bit whiny here, it's been my hobby-horse lately :P)


Dat sentence sucks.
lol


In general, I believe philosophy to be useful in a number of ways. I've always kind of looked at philosophy as allowing us to broaden things a bit past scope; be a bit more out of the box if you will.   However, any willy-nilly personal thought should not be given credit as philosophy.  Sometimes we just have Ideas.  They're not particularly lofty nor useful. That's cool.  But I think we (people in general) should steer clear of throwing every possible thought or idea under the bus of philosophy.  Lately that's become Oh So fashionable a thing to do.  Hey.........sometimes it's better to say "Yo I had a thought." followed harmlessly with "what do you think?"
I worry sometimes that people try too hard to give their *stuff* weight by paraphrasing everything as "here's a little philosophy" - because sorry - sometimes it's just pure rubbish.

Does ALL philosophy Have to have a strict purpose? Well no.  But a little distinction between what might be an idea/thought someone wants to share and "hey....this is philosophy"  doesn't need to be so labor intensive for every conversation.

my two cents worth
and I'm completely in Dejavu in that I'm pretty sure I typed this exact thing one week ago. :shock:
I am currently experiencing life at several WTFs per hour.

Jmpty

Where would we be without it?
???  ??

bennyboy

Philosophy is moral, beautiful, and rational.  I sometimes like it.
Insanity is the only sensible response to the universe.  The sane are just making stuff up.

The Dude

Sometimes I like it, and like discussing it.

Other times it's just plain fucking annoying.

Thumpalumpacus

There's nothing wrong with formalized inquiry into human concepts.  But like any discipline, it has limits to its utility, and like any abstract process, it doesn't always address the concrete in a meaningful manner.
<insert witty aphorism here>

BlackL1ght

I think there's a huge difference between philosophy and metaphysics. Philosophy is useful, metaphysics is not.
Vi veri Veniversum Vivus Vici

Icarus

Philosophy is like the pet no one wants, when science is at the vet you might as well play with it to kill time.

Agramon

I'm sure it's useful, but nearly all of the Philosophy majors I've had talks with are douchenozzles that look down on the rest of us mortals from their imaginary ivory towers.
"And, tricked by our own early dream
And need of solace, we grew self-deceived,
Our making soon our maker did we deem,
And what we had imagined we believed."
- Thomas Hardy

ThePilgrim101

I don't much care about it. I'd rather be in the lab.
Quote from: \"azmhyr\"
Quote from: \"quoting\"New Testament doesn\'t Justify the banning of gays from anywhere.
Well, the old testament permabans them from life tho.

Agramon

Quote from: "ThePilgrim101"I don't much care about it. I'd rather be in the lab.
QFT.
"And, tricked by our own early dream
And need of solace, we grew self-deceived,
Our making soon our maker did we deem,
And what we had imagined we believed."
- Thomas Hardy

Philosophos

I'm a huge fan of philosophy, but see some significant problems with it. Epistemology and ethics should be the most important fields any human could possibly study and master - I mean, is there anything more important than figuring out how we can know things and how to live a good life? But unfortunately the paths both fields are significantly flawed. The good news is that some have diagnosed some of the problems well (JD Trout and Michael Bishop in epistemology, the modern virtue ethicists starting with Elizabeth Anscombe, and the bewitchment by language in general starting with the later Wittgenstein) so that hopefully these disciplines will get back on their feet.
Quote from: \"Smartmarzipan\"I hate people. And so should you. \":D\"