What have you learned from philosophy?
Or, what has philosophy taught you?
My take is that I learned mostly about how little I know. To disentangle the appeal of the material/abstract division you see everywhere where this question is posed, I suppose my response has been the valuation of ethics. But, the dilemma I have encountered in regards to what is ethical, is the Hume/Wittgenstein sentiment that these are psychological matters, thus leaving one with a form of emotive theory in regards to the issue.
Anyway, what are your own problems or knowledge about what philosophy has taught you?
My take is that I learned mostly about how little I know. To disentangle the appeal of the material/abstract division you see everywhere where this question is posed, I suppose my response has been the valuation of ethics. But, the dilemma I have encountered in regards to what is ethical, is the Hume/Wittgenstein sentiment that these are psychological matters, thus leaving one with a form of emotive theory in regards to the issue.
Anyway, what are your own problems or knowledge about what philosophy has taught you?
Comments (6)
This is profound. In a manner more profound than what any philosopher has dared to say.
Kudos, for making such a statement!
Thanks Wallows. I appreciate you appreciating it.
But, it's true in that philosophers should restrict themselves to descriptive measures, normative measures are best left to science and the like. Unless, we get some ubermensch or something.
Brett and Wallows, I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate you both on your occasion of revealing just how great the two of you are, reflected in the attitude with which you answered the question of the topic.
For me, what I learned from philosophy is quite different, and not as noble, and characteristically not as outstandingly ethical and humble as the expressed learned wisdom the two of you gained.
My learning from philosophy FORUMS is that there are too many goons, schizophrenics, trolls, religious fanatics, and plain stupid people, all of whom take themselves very seriously, in fact, dead seriously; and at first it is not very easy to distinguish between a glib idiot and a glib genius. The cat comes out of the bag, eventually.
And I am even less noble than the two of you, for I don't consider myself one of the lot that I described here above.
Of course please note that this I learned from participating on FORUMS; this is not what I learned from philosophy. I did not learn from philosophy much factual or trivial knowledge; even when it comes to theories. I learned, instead, an ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak; to recognize well-put arguments, and to recognize poorly put arguments. To recognize fallacious reasoning and no-reason reasoning.
I also learned a few interesting theories, mainly through the recounts and analysis of the classic minds' theories and ideas. I learned to like and adore Hume, almost on a personal level, and certainly on a professional level; and learned to dislike Kant. I learned to admire Sartre and learned to almost worship Descartes, for their contributions to human and philosophical insights.