Why bother with Philosophy?

People wonder what the meaning of life is. However, reality is unexplainable.

Just accept that the majority are dumb, and that utopia is a pipe dream. Our thinking should be used to solve problems, rather than achieve some illusory goal.

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  • I believe all philosophers end up in philosophy prompted by the question of Fate or Free Will. Between the lot of them (I'm generalising a bit, but not much), they could've written The Matrix. 

    Philosophy isn't actually about the meaning of life, that's a spiritual quest. It's a science and like all sciences will help give identification to seemingly invisible systems at play. Without philosophy we wouldn't have the fundamentals needed for the Justice System, Education or Psychology. We wouldn't have rules to measure science by, the construct of ethics or aesthetics and right about now, the quest for expressing aesthetics is almost becoming a measure of survival for hyper-sensory individuals. 

    I'd say definitely bother with it! But one doesn't need to start with Plato. Peel through the philosophy section of a library and find someone who speaks to you. 

  • How about if you were recommending philosophers JFG?  I am absolutely curious about who your favourites are.  I promise no combat in my responses.  This purely a knowledge quest for me. Slight smile

  • I started out with a bit of exploration. But I discovered I tend to like the Germans and the French. Haha. Kant, a (gain of salt with) Nietzsche (he seemed bitter), Foucault, but there's a wealth one ends up peeling through just by reading any philosopher. I've been studying Deleuze for 8 years now and the books he co-wrote with Felix Guattari are life altering - they changed my ability to navigate society, helped finalise an internal check-list and set of rules with which to understand NTs and really have laid out exactly why and how Autists are marginalised within society. But on a sociological side, I really love Erich Fromm. He's not as difficult, more of a social philosopher. 

    In my late teens I had been interested in philosophy but at that age one is easily steered toward investigating religions - so I had gone east to west but some are a bit too pious to suffer (I did appreciate Thomas Merton). To be fair, I would always suggest starting with a bit of symbolic logic or just learn a little on how arguments are structured. It makes it easier to understand the rules philosophers follow when crafting their concepts or laying out a philosophy.

  • Our TV caught fire once. The early days of televisions eh! Unreliable big old things.

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