Quote:
Originally posted by Ustwo
Ok I'll be honest.
I don't why people get so interested in philosophers.
I look at most of it as mental masturbation. A substitute for unknown truths.
They can be very clever, and convey their ideas well, but in the end its mostly hot air.
In short Philosophy is what some smart people like to play with when they aren’t doing something useful.
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While it's true that there's plenty of philosophy PhDs going around full of hot air, I'd say that there are other liberal arts majors more suceptible to hot-airness than philosophy (eg, literature studies, history, journalism, fine arts). Some philosophers write in cramped and unclear styles (hegel, buber) and i can't stand most of them (though i kind of dig buber). Most of the others, however, are trying to follow some sort of rigor in their thinking. Read descartes--very readable. see how he tries to make logic be the basis for his arguments (even though he fails). In general, I'd say it's reasonably hard to be a serious philosopher and be full of hot air. take a logic class. you would be impressed.
Why people are interested in philosophy: what do you think democracy is all about? who came up with the idea? it didn't come out of nowhere--it's pretty revolutionary when you think about it. Take a look at the declaration of independence, the us constitution and then read rousseau, locke. you will see tons and tons of resemblance. all this stuff about artificial intelligence--who comes up with ideas to say what intelligence is? what inspires the direction of research? why did the great minds of the renaissance base their research into the world of men, when the previous age had been completely directed by God? In iraq, what's the proper way to frame the new constitution? science will not answer the question, and just taking 5 random smart people's opinion won't do the trick either. Is there such thing as a universal logic, something that all sentinent beings in any universe would have to realize? (it's been proven that no, there isn't.) what guides the way you live? you can look at religious texts to find answers, but you can also take some insights from reading philosophers, old and new. (on metaphysical issues, no progress can really be made, but being able to see life through different models is as useful the same way that reading more than one math textbook is useful.) Why don't most people follow the bible word for word? The arguments of philosophers such as thomas aquinas, kierkegaard, pascal has smoothed out the rough passages in it, so that reasonable people can cite intelligent sources showing that you don't need to take the bible completely literally.
re masturbation: philosophy is intellectual masturbation, the same way arts are masturbation--you draw from your own mind, excite it, create something out of it, that gives you pleasure, satisfaction. no argument there. re a substitute for unknown truths--that may be true, but an engineer will substitute an empirical formula for a process he/she doesn't fully understand. nothing wrong with that--gotta use what you got.
re: something to play with when you're not doing something useful: probably true--only rich and opulent societies can afford to keep philosophers on a paycheck. same thing with artists, architects, theoretical physicists, space exploration, marine biologists, bead makers, professional athletes, fashion designers, cosmetologists, etc etc.