Philosophy is a hobby. No. It is a way of life.

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14 Dec 2011, 2:41 pm

"Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.[3] The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom"." According to Wikipedia

I think that makes it sound useful.

ruveyn
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14 Dec 2011, 2:43 pm

Robdemanc wrote:

To whom? Professors of Philosophy who are looking for tenure?

ruveyn

Robdemanc
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14 Dec 2011, 2:46 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Robdemanc wrote:

To whom? Professors of Philosophy who are looking for tenure?

ruveyn

To everyone. Everyone can philosophise. If there are proffesors of it then they should be teaching it privately. I wouldn't like government money spent on it. I see what you are getting at.

rombomb2
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14 Dec 2011, 4:20 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Meanwhile the philosophers cry and whine about being under-appreciated.

ruveyn

I've never cried or whined. Neither do any of the philosophers I speak to. Why do you lump all philosophers together?

Btw, lumping people together in groups as you just have, is very immature. Philosophers don't do this because this is one of the first things philosophers learn.

Philosophy helps to improve thinking so that we don't think immaturely.

rombomb2
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14 Dec 2011, 4:22 pm

Sunshine7 wrote:

Quote:

What I care about is that philosophy is not considered useless. We've got to make it known that philosophy is as important, if not more important, than math, science, etc.

I admit I'm one of the heathens who neither know nor care a lot about philosophy, but from the way I've heard philosophy professors speak and how much their lives (not just professional lives) revolve around it, methinks it can't be that unimportant.

My philosophy professor used to complain the the philosophy department always gets a poor deal with budgeting time comes. He never elaborated on why, but my statistics professors never had that problem. That said, mathematics and sciences never had to try and claim that they were important.

You are speaking about Continental Philosophers who dwell on unimportant questions. Scientific Philosophers don't do this.

To be clear, you don't care *because* you don't know. If you knew, you would care.

rombomb2
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14 Dec 2011, 4:31 pm

ruveyn wrote:

What was the last philosopher that made a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the world. What was his/her contribution and who?

ruveyn

I don't know the last one. But here is one:

Harry Brighous, his book "On Education." His ideas remedy the major problems with our school system.

rombomb2
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14 Dec 2011, 4:34 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Robdemanc wrote:

To whom? Professors of Philosophy who are looking for tenure?

ruveyn

To me and others who intend to improve their thinking. Do you intend to improve your thinking or would you rather continue making the same fallacious mistakes that you've been making in this thread?

Tadzio
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14 Dec 2011, 5:48 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Robdemanc wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

Robdemanc wrote:

It started in his mind as a thought.

Do does preparing for you next meal.

Everything we do or say starts as a thought. Our brains operate our bodies.

ruveyn

Does that mean that thinking operates our bodies? And if philosophy is thinking then philosophy operates our bodies. So that makes it important?

Look at the definition. Philosophy is the love of wisdom. Philosophy is not synonymous with thinking.

ruveyn

"Everything we do or say starts as a thought. "

WRONG!! ! A physical response starts before the neurological activity of a "thought" starts. "Thoughts" happen shortly AFTER the physical response.

"Philosophy" is a set neurological tricks from the development of operant scheduled "thoughts" patterned from schedules of reinforcement involving the earlier "trained" physical responses.

Therefore, the easily observed physical body responds to the environment which trains the neurological system to increase the frequency of responses to some distinguishable stimuli. When the physical responses are in the brain and directly correlated to "verbal behaviour" (and "in the brain" making the responses very difficult to detect without extremely sensitive Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging equipment), and function as internal stimuli themselves to surrounding neurological correlations, the convenient, and rather vague, label of "a thought" is frequently applied.

A rather large repertoire of such verbal behaviours is often described as "having" a philosophy.

Tadzio

ruveyn
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14 Dec 2011, 5:59 pm

Tadzio wrote:

A rather large repertoire of such verbal behaviours is often described as "having" a philosophy.

Tadzio

does teaching new dogs old tricks provide them with a philosophy?

ruveyn

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14 Dec 2011, 6:11 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Tadzio wrote:

A rather large repertoire of such verbal behaviours is often described as "having" a philosophy.

Tadzio

does teaching new dogs old tricks provide them with a philosophy?

ruveyn

Hi ruveyn,

So you now condescend to offer a "witty" reply.

People who rely on specially trained dogs to aid them with their otherwise human disabilities would most likely say yes. Many people notice their very emotionally close dog has often a better philosophy than many humans.

You seem confused with the saying being "the old dog can't be taught a different philosophy", and then you seem to offer your very own as evidence.

Tadzio

ruveyn
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14 Dec 2011, 6:25 pm

rombomb2 wrote:

To me and others who intend to improve their thinking. Do you intend to improve your thinking or would you rather continue making the same fallacious mistakes that you've been making in this thread?

Actually I have been dead on right this thread. Do you know why? It is because I put FACTS before philosophy. FACTS rule. Theories serve (sometimes).

ruveyn

MarcusTulliusCicero
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14 Dec 2011, 7:01 pm

rombomb2 wrote:

ruveyn wrote:

What was the last philosopher that made a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the world. What was his/her contribution and who?

ruveyn

I don't know the last one. But here is one:

Harry Brighous, his book "On Education." His ideas remedy the major problems with our school system.

See what I mean rombomb? Warned you.

ruveyn
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14 Dec 2011, 7:19 pm

rombomb2 wrote:

I don't know the last one. But here is one:

Harry Brighous, his book "On Education." His ideas remedy the major problems with our school system.

Which is your school system and has Brighous' work been corroborated in practice?

ruveyn

rombomb2
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14 Dec 2011, 7:52 pm

ruveyn wrote:

rombomb2 wrote:

I don't know the last one. But here is one:

Harry Brighous, his book "On Education." His ideas remedy the major problems with our school system.

Which is your school system?

I was schooled in the American school system. And I'll correct my original statement and include all our school systems.

ruveyn wrote:

and has Brighous' work been corroborated in practice?

I don't know. Is corroboration in practice a necessary requirement for you to understand that his work is a substantial contribution? If so, lets perform a thought experiment. Lets say 20 years from now, Brighous's ideas have been applied in school systems and some of the major problems are solved. His work would have been corroborated in practice. Then would you call his work a substantial contribution? And if so, what would you say to your 20-year-younger self?

Dedalus
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14 Dec 2011, 8:08 pm

I think there are a lot of people talking a lot of hot air on this thread.

It's important to study philosophy a bit before you slam it. Most of the dislike for the field comes out of the idea that it's just a bunch of lads in togas justifying their drug abuse.

For example, science is a philosophy. That was developed. It didn't just appear one day out of nowhere.

rombomb2
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14 Dec 2011, 8:10 pm

ruveyn wrote:

rombomb2 wrote:

To me and others who intend to improve their thinking. Do you intend to improve your thinking or would you rather continue making the same fallacious mistakes that you've been making in this thread?

Actually I have been dead on right this thread.

I was not speaking of your factual mistakes. I was speaking of your fallacious arguments and questions. You have been misunderstanding much of this thread. This causes you to ask illogical questions.

ruveyn wrote:

Do you know why? It is because I put FACTS before philosophy. FACTS rule. Theories serve (sometimes).

Do you suggest that philosophers put philosophy or facts?

--If so, then you have not understood Scientific Philosophy. Please educate yourself: http://scientific-philosophy.blogspot.com/

--If not, then why did you say that you 'put FACTS before philosophy'? What is your purpose for making such a statement?

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