Poll: Philosophy: Important or a Waste of Time?
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I'd say the OP is dead wrong. For a start, contemporary philosophy is far removed from the Ancient Greeks, and ALL of the cutting edge physics stuff is theories developed philosophically.
Philosophy is basically illogical mathematics, and that is a fantastically complicated and useful thing. I disagree that a lot of philosophical concepts have been disproven scientifically. In fact, I'd argue that nearly none have.
Philosophy is basically illogical mathematics, and that is a fantastically complicated and useful thing. I disagree that a lot of philosophical concepts have been disproven scientifically. In fact, I'd argue that nearly none have.
Vastly interesting. However, even Wittgenstein said that a man should learn philosophy for a short time, then leave it.
Personally I much prefer the Existentialists to the Stoics and so on, while Kant can just feck off, given the amount of evenings in university where my friends bored the tits off me discussing it at the pub when I was trying to have a drink.
Personally I much prefer the Existentialists to the Stoics and so on, while Kant can just feck off, given the amount of evenings in university where my friends bored the tits off me discussing it at the pub when I was trying to have a drink.
In my opinion, philosophy could best be summed up as the study of the human psyche, and its causes and consequences.
As such, I consider it as important as other acedemic fields, or even more important as this is a science that concerns us directly.
In my opinion, litterature, culture and philisophy are what allows us to live as human beings, and not to simply survive by having the edge of technology over the other animals.
As of you, Glass Joe the Champ, I find your current stance to be very similar to what was mine a few years earlier.
The important thing you need to understand in order to really get into philosophy is that it actually isn't "just a buch of dead Greeks".
Philosophy always surrounds you : you only have to look for it. Maybe you shouldn't have started with the Greeks, as their opinions are different of ours in almost every field, simply because they died 2500 years ago.
Learn to pick any debate you can : wondering if Norway should thoughen their laws because of the recent killing-spree ? Arguing with your girlfriend about a choice you have to make ?
That's all philosophy, right there.
Just look around this forum : a least half the subjects can be used, one way or another, in a philosophical debate.
Final advice : try Voltaire and Diderot, the french writers. They knew how to mix though with fun so reading them wouldn't be an absolute pain, even to a newcomer.
As such, I consider it as important as other acedemic fields, or even more important as this is a science that concerns us directly.
In my opinion, litterature, culture and philisophy are what allows us to live as human beings, and not to simply survive by having the edge of technology over the other animals.
As of you, Glass Joe the Champ, I find your current stance to be very similar to what was mine a few years earlier.
The important thing you need to understand in order to really get into philosophy is that it actually isn't "just a buch of dead Greeks".
Philosophy always surrounds you : you only have to look for it. Maybe you shouldn't have started with the Greeks, as their opinions are different of ours in almost every field, simply because they died 2500 years ago.
Learn to pick any debate you can : wondering if Norway should thoughen their laws because of the recent killing-spree ? Arguing with your girlfriend about a choice you have to make ?
That's all philosophy, right there.
Just look around this forum : a least half the subjects can be used, one way or another, in a philosophical debate.
Final advice : try Voltaire and Diderot, the french writers. They knew how to mix though with fun so reading them wouldn't be an absolute pain, even to a newcomer.
Depends upon the professor. In proper schooling, philosophy is "the search for truth" and a structural analysis of your own way of thinking and beliefs as expressed in life and diluted into simpler statements. If held to those criteria, I'd say it's a necessity for proper growth as a human being.
Well yeah, all modern sciences are derivatives of Philosophy, so I believe it to be the most important subject. But we wouldn't be nothing without it...
It's just as important.
It makes hard moral and ethical choices easier for one, which is immensly valuable in life.
I could go on but everyone alse allreaady has.
It makes hard moral and ethical choices easier for one, which is immensly valuable in life.
I could go on but everyone alse allreaady has.
Well, I'd say it's fairly important to know how to frame one's thoughts, and what greater image they ultimately paint. If you don't structure a series of specific thoughts into an abstract concept, then there's no way to progress from/with them. Philosophy is reflection upon what is, but unlike "hard science" it's also an attempt to find out what should be.
There are of course the less practical forms of philosophy - such as wondering whether anything you see really exist, which gets old pretty fast[footnote]"Existence", like all other words and concepts, is a term created by humans; It has meaning only within human thought and communication, and if something exist in those, well then it exist.
Determining which attributes it then has - such as physical presence or not - is where it gets tricky. And where science - as defined by its use of the scientific method - steps in to save the day.[/footnote] - but ethical and societal philosophy can offer useful guidelines and reflections offering a macro perspective on where society is at, where it's heading, and suggestions on where it should head if it want to cater to certain values (whose merit has also been thought over and weighed towards each other).
There are of course the less practical forms of philosophy - such as wondering whether anything you see really exist, which gets old pretty fast[footnote]"Existence", like all other words and concepts, is a term created by humans; It has meaning only within human thought and communication, and if something exist in those, well then it exist.
Determining which attributes it then has - such as physical presence or not - is where it gets tricky. And where science - as defined by its use of the scientific method - steps in to save the day.[/footnote] - but ethical and societal philosophy can offer useful guidelines and reflections offering a macro perspective on where society is at, where it's heading, and suggestions on where it should head if it want to cater to certain values (whose merit has also been thought over and weighed towards each other).
I think philosophy is well worth learning. I did two philosophy modules- one on societal philosophy and one on moral philosophy- and enjoyed them both thoroughly. Not only does philosophy give you the skills to structure an argument and be able to make a retort to other arguments without having to resort to nitpicking, AND on top of that give you a nice historical perspective of the viewpoints of our ancestors... yeah, it's quite valuable.Glass Joe the Champ said:
As valuable as practical applied science? No. Philosophy doesn't invent new machines or vaccines, but it's key to understanding who and what we are, and it's incredibly valuable. As for studying 'dead Greeks' bullshit', I agree to an extent (doing an Ancient History degree, I find dead Greeks fascinating), but if you're studying philosophy chronologically you'll eventually come up to philosophers like Nietzche and Marx, who had a definite real impact on the world as you see it today.
Besides, a lot of scientists have said they owed their interest in the sciences to ancient Greeks- Socrates, for example, has had a long and lasting effect on 'men of reason'.
I'd say that for a hard sciences kinda guy, you haven't taken a very professional approach to this whole thingGlass Joe the Champ said:
I could go and find a book on alchemy, and write off your entire field. It's about as appropriate as your example.Summed up really simply, sciences and philosophy are interwoven tightly, usually via mathematics. Philosophy is a thought process, a development of reasoning, all of which are essential skills in discovery of any kind. While a great portion of philosophy may deal with abstract concept, a lot of it deals with probability, statistic, application of knowledge and so on.
Philosophy is a study of what makes us human, and is an essential pillar of politics, economics, and sociology.... all of which are essential to sciences. Philosophy governs the way people are organised, and organised people is the key to scientific discovery. The two are both very important, although the practical application of philosophy is probably much more useful in daily life than the vast majority of scientific discovery.
I am interested in what philosophical concepts have been disproved by science though, ones that weren't disproved by philosophy first at any rate.Either way, it's fine if you aren't interested, or don't see the importance of the subject, because it takes all kinds of people to make the world work. I'd never say philosophy is MORE important than any other field, but I'd argue that it is more than deserving of being up there with the best of them.
I'm a philosophy major so I guess I'm biased as all hell, but what you seem to be talking about is stuff that is kind of irrelevant to modern thought. It really falls as much under Classics as it does Philosophy.
Philosophy is as much about learning how to think really well as it is anything else. Sometimes this means deconstructing old arguments to see why people believed them and why they are wrong. It's just part of the learning process.
Philosophy is as much about learning how to think really well as it is anything else. Sometimes this means deconstructing old arguments to see why people believed them and why they are wrong. It's just part of the learning process.
That's it in a nutshell.poiumty said:
I think, therefore I am.
If you want modern philosophy, at what point does life begin? I.E. At what point is abortion murder, scientifically - and thus legally - speaking?
What legal rights does a clone have?
Is euthanasia a viable alternative against an incurable disease?
Can madness be cured, and should it be?
Have we a right to carry firearms?
That's all philosophy.
You must understand the foundations upon which a house is built before you can fully appreciate how it came to be. Perhaps it is the ideas that created those foundations which are more important to know than the foundations themselves?Glass Joe the Champ said:
No, I haven't taken philosophy, but I respect it greatly because in my college only 1 person didn't fail twice in a row in their first year, everyone else did.
Nice. Perhaps you'd do me a little favour Togs, if you will?Togs said:
Look at your screen. Now rotate your head 90 degrees.
Did you see any motion blur?
Why not?
What part of your mind is fooling you? That's your "navel-gazing" in action. Quite important if you're driving, for instance.
Taking basic classes in philosophy is usually a waste of time since you'll hear about vague elements with little to no dissussion on many subjects. But once you go deeper,there are so many ramifications and most of them on day to day living,contrary to the belief of it beeing something abstract. The most important thing it teached me is the ability to not be influence by outside thoughts and have a will of my own.