Glass Joe the Champ said:
Hey guys. I have to take a Philosophy class this year, so I've been reading the required book over the summer, and OH MY GOD IS THIS THE STUPIDEST SUBJECT EVER!
See, I'm a very hard sciences kind of guy, so reading about dead Greeks' abstract theories on trivial bullshit (a lot of which have been proven false by modern science) seems like a complete waste of time to me. Why bother with high concept ideas that can't be proven and are inapplicable to real life?
What do you guys think about the subject? Are there any philosophy aficionados out there that can teach me the error of my ignorant ways?
EDIT: Just to clarify, I mean philosophy as in the academic subject as it currently exists, not the general school of thought.
Well, as a philosophy graduate I guess I have a lot invested in that topic, but depending on your level, I think it could be a waste of your time.
It really depends on who you're studying, at what level, and in which context.
In terms of politics, economics, art, literature, drama, psychology and sociology, I'm not sure the ancient greeks (most of all Plato and Aristotle) can be beaten. Even in terms of logic and reason, these guys are very valuable as the source of what we consider to be rational today.
If you're focussing on their hard science, it will probably be a bit of a waste aside from its use as a history of scientific thought. There are interesting ways in which Aristotle's elements (fire, earth, air and water) coincide with the modern model (plasma, solid, gas and liquid) as well as ole' Aristotle's little mode of thought known as biology, which has been pretty important to science.
So, if you're trying to get modern science out of ancient philosophy, you'll be sorely disappointed, but that isn't the point in reading them.
My philosophy professor first graduated in physics, so it isn't as if there's a fixed choice between science and philosophy.
I think, and here's where my investment comes in, that in terms of value theory (not economics) philosophy is pretty damned important right now. Seeing as we have so many cultures and perspectives melted together it seems like investigating how we reach the values we do, and the value of those values, is a pertinent question.
For example, I read about a neuroscience committee who discovered the brain patterns associated with moral behaviour, and seriously considered the possibility of chemically inducing this brain pattern in humans, so as to achieve a moral society. A journalist (and neuroscientist) was able to take their argument apart with an argument from Plato's Eurythro. Seeing that obviously intelligent scientists failed to recognize one of the central paradoxes in Western thought shows that philosophy still has valuable contributions to make in science, if not the scientific theory itself.
TL;DR (in which case good luck with philosophy
): Philosophy has many valuable ideas and modes of thinking in it, modern science isn't one of them, but it is the root of modern science itself.