Academic philosophy and its pitfalls...

[pennywise]

is it me, or are most of these threads and responses born out of what someone heard in their philosophy class today?

****EDIT: i didnt make this thread, but it was a good idea anyway****

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

Gotta start somewhere. I'm an eastern philo major and whats wrong with teaching others? Your post was meaningless.

 

[pennywise]

Gotta start somewhere. I'm an eastern philo major and whats wrong with teaching others? Your post was meaningless.

if it was meaningless than how did you comprehend my meaning enough to formulate a response?

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

if it was meaningless than how did you comprehend my meaning enough to formulate a response?

Here kiddo, let me clarify things so that you can better understand my statement. I said, "Your post was meaningless." In saying that I was alluding to the fact that your post lacked (if you unfamiliar with the term, it means "was/is devoid of" purpose/meaning in reference to the nature of the thread. You made an obvious statement that "...most posts sound like recycled philosophy teachings." Why state the obvious? It is a meaningless action and has no relevence to the topic at hand. Are you that bored with life?
You sound to me like a very naive individual who has trouble comprehending such ambiguous and abstract philosophical/religious inqueries dealing with the existence of god, meaninglessness in the universe, free will vs determinism, dualism/monism, etc and you take out your frustration on those with more expansive, inquisitive minds.
You should probably steer clear of this forum because you're nothing more than a troll in a lot of people's eyes.

PS: Taking philosophy classes with brilliant teachers is one of the best ways to better understand the nature of reality among many other routes.

 

[sexyanon2]

is it me, or are most of these threads and responses born out of what someone heard in their philosophy class today?

How's the air up there?

And no.

 

[pennywise]

Here kiddo, let me clarify things so that you can better understand my statement. I said, "Your post was meaningless." In saying that I was alluding to the fact that your post lacked (if you unfamiliar with the term, it means "was/is devoid of" purpose/meaning in reference to the nature of the thread. You made an obvious statement that "...most posts sound like recycled philosophy teachings." Why state the obvious? It is a meaningless action and has no relevence to the topic at hand. Are you that bored with life?
You sound to me like a very naive individual who has trouble comprehending such ambiguous and abstract philosophical/religious inqueries dealing with the existence of god, meaninglessness in the universe, free will vs determinism, dualism/monism, etc and you take out your frustration on those with more expansive, inquisitive minds.
You should probably steer clear of this forum because you're nothing more than a troll in a lot of people's eyes.

PS: Taking philosophy classes with brilliant teachers is one of the best ways to better understand the nature of reality among many other routes.

in that case, your post was vague and poorly written.

or, maybe i sound like someone who is bored of hearing uninspired rehashes right out of the textbook 8( look im killing you with emoticons

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

in that case, your post was vague and poorly written.

or, maybe i sound like someone who is bored of hearing uninspired rehashes right out of the textbook 8( look im killing you with emoticons

I was between classes at school and had about 5 minutes so reply. Thats why I mentioned at the bottom of my post that I'd like to return with a clearer reply and further discussion. If these topics bore you then you simply are not getting "it". There are some who have a lesser mind. I'm sorry you turned out to be one of them. And hey, can I have extra pickles on my burger? Thanks, and pronto.

 

[pennywise]

I was between classes at school and had about 5 minutes so reply. Thats why I mentioned at the bottom of my post that I'd like to return with a clearer reply and further discussion. If these topics bore you then you simply are not getting "it". There are some who have a lesser mind. I'm sorry you turned out to be one of them. And hey, can I have extra pickles on my burger? Thanks, and pronto.

HAHAHA youre a philosophy major, and im the one whos going to make your burger? thats a good one.

and its boring because, as i said, theres no new ideas, just a rehash of standard philosophy lectures.

 

[pennywise]

And the difference between a philosophy classroom and another medium of interaction is...

instead of discourse, all that people post is a summary of their notes.......

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

HAHAHA youre a philosophy major, and im the one whos going to make your burger? thats a good one.

and its boring because, as i said, theres no new ideas, just a rehash of standard philosophy lectures.

I didn't say you'd be MAKING my burgers. Judging by your tact on this thread which reflects to some degree your demeanor in public (and your attitude towards learning and teaching others) I said "extra pickles". This means you don't quite rank "patty flipper". You'll end up the "condiment/toppings artist".

ps: I haven't referred to any of my notes in any posts. I've put my thoughts and beliefs in the form of words. But you shouldn't waste time here. You should be studying the vast varieties of dills and methods of slicing them because this will be essential in becoming head of the condiments and toppings department at either a wendy's or mcdonalds located, I'm assuming, in your home town because walking from your parent's house to work every day gets a bit tough I imagine at age 37. Good luck with...life, I guess?

 

[pennywise]

I didn't say you'd be MAKING my burgers. Judging by your tact on this thread which reflects to some degree your demeanor in public (and your attitude towards learning and teaching others) I said "extra pickles". This means you don't quite rank "patty flipper". You'll end up the "condiment/toppings artist".

ps: I haven't referred to any of my notes in any posts. I've put my thoughts and beliefs in the form of words. But you shouldn't waste time here. You should be studying the vast varieties of dills and methods of slicing them because this will be essential in becoming head of the condiments and toppings department at either a wendy's or mcdonalds located, I'm assuming, in your home town because walking from your parent's house to work every day gets a bit tough I imagine at age 37. Good luck with...life, I guess?

whats funny is that the experience one would gain in the fast food industry would be more useful in finding employment than your philosphy degree.....

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

whats funny is that the experience one would gain in the fast food industry would be more useful in finding employment than your philosphy degree.....

That's funny, I could have sworn Nozick, Camus (won the nobel prize for literature), Baudrillarde, and most any philosophy teacher would never make the mistake of assuming that ANY meaninful knowledge that could possibly be learned by the fast food industry would be of any use to an individual concerned with the seeking of truth and not be mention making loads of cash publishing books and teaching at universities. But hey, maybe you're right. Maybe there is more than meets the eye in knowing how to buy wholesale, unhealthy, processed, infested "food" and put it together, not unlike the way any person with at least 4 or 5 good braincells would. Maybe I should should go major in business and live my life collecting ties and having a fit ever time I spill coffee on my new, expensive business suit. You know, the suit that basically has "tool" written all over it?

Let me think here: Master the art of frying a string of potato in a "french" fashion and hone my skills at counting money from a drawer which I believe is a skill I attained in elementry school...or...lend a curious attitude into the pursuit on knowledge and chistle the mind into an inquisitive, skeptical organism used soley for the purpose of uncovering the truths of the universe, which are, by the way, the only questions worth inquiring. But you go ahead and master the burger. But remember: Bun, patty, condiments (make sure you obey the desired condiments from the tool whol placed the order, thus making you near worthless besides having the ability to play servent to obese wastes of matter), top bun. Sounds like success to me!

 

[protovack]

pennywise wrote...

whats funny is that the experience one would gain in the fast food industry would be more useful in finding employment than your philosphy degree.....

In my first year of college, I took an intro philosophy class. During the first lecture, our professor told an interesting story. By the way, he was about 45 or 50, had gray hair and a pony tail. The previous summer, he had tried to get a job as a gas station attendant, thinking it would be nice to spend some time outside in the warm weather talking to people and making a few bucks. He said it sounded much better than just sitting around talking philosophy indoors (because that's what he does all year long anyway).

Anyway, he applied and got called for an interview. As soon as he walked in, the manager said that he "had too much education," and that it would "look strange" if he worked there.

So I suppose you are right

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

pennywise wrote...
In my first year of college, I took an intro philosophy class. During the first lecture, our professor told an interesting story. By the way, he was about 45 or 50, had gray hair and a pony tail. The previous summer, he had tried to get a job as a gas station attendant, thinking it would be nice to spend some time outside in the warm weather talking to people and making a few bucks. He said it sounded much better than just sitting around talking philosophy indoors (because that's what he does all year long anyway).

Anyway, he applied and got called for an interview. As soon as he walked in, the manager said that he "had too much education," and that it would "look strange" if he worked there.

So I suppose you are right

Did he consider any other positions besides that of a gas station attendent? Working in a book store? A record store? A greenhouse? Writing a book? Sorry, but that was a terrible justification for pennywise's post.

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

This thread is a perfect example of the concept of meaningless. Will a mod please close this?

 

[ebola?]

shit man. I just created it.

ebola

 

[PhenethylTrypta]

shit man. I just created it.

ebola

And how, in any way, does this argument between me and this other person demonstrate the "pitfalls" of academic philosophy? It got out of hand, but I was simply debated his postulations with the use of of satire and sarcasm. What's with the personal vendeta against me? I would not say I belong to a group of people who engage in academic philosophy and create "pitfalls" by discussing my beliefs on a message board made for that purpose. But thanks for the misjudgement of my character based on a short series of posts on a message board.

 

[thursday]

why is it that all of the people who say that there isn't any discourse in the field of philosophy today have absolutely no understanding of what's actually going on contemporary philosophy, and have never actually participated in academic studies on philosophy themselves?

how do you know that all of the people in academia today regarding philosophy are just rehashing old ideas and not coming up with any new ones?

how do you know what is going on in the contemporary studies of philosophy if you've never engaged in these studies yourself?

you haven't given any examples of what you are criticizing a very large academic community of doing, all you've done is make generalizations about a wide-ranging school of thought, demonstrating how little effort you've actually given to actually learning what's going on in contemporary philosophy.

sure, an ungrad student is going to learn about a lot of the fundamentals of philosophies--the classics, the essential philosophies, the pivotal philosophical movements, the basic ideas and foundational texts on which much of the language of contemporary philosophy is built upon--but that's true of all fields of knowledge.

in order to get into the discovery-oriented fields of any school of thought, you have to have a grasp the foundations first.

philosophy isn't just about spitting out new ideas and then just tossing them out after some time has passed. it's about building on knowledge, same with all studies. continual discourse means reviewing the ideas that people have come up with, scrutinizing them, testing them, refining them, revising them, improving upon them some more, etc. this is an on going process. there are things to be said of classical philosophies hundreds of years old still. there are still problematic elements in even the most highly acclaimed philosophies. much of contemporary philosophy has to do with dealing with the fallacies of existing philosophies, either by refuting them with new arguments, or by resolving them with new interpretations.

have you read any philosophical journals lately? have you read any academic papers on philosophy ever? if you have then you'd know that philosophers are constantly expanding on the ideas of their precessors as well as their contemporaries. they use established ideas as reference points. philosophy isn't a collection of disconnected islands of thought. it's a web of interconnected discourse. it's almost impossible to have discourse without referencing other ideas. is this rehashing or is this progress?

it's easy to criticize something you know nothing about if all you're going to do is make broad generalizations without any factual basis. but try and support your claims, and you'll see how off base you are.

personally, if i were a mod i'd just close this thread as it really has no purpose as PhenethylTrypta has stated. the original poster is just trolling.

if you feel threatened by people discussing philosophical topics you don't understand, then rather than criticizing them for applying what they've learned in their academic studies in their daily life, maybe you ought to just pick up a book once in a while and enlighten yourself on these topics. it's not as if what you learn in school should just be kept within the classroom. being angry at people for pursuing an education and actually being enthusiastic about it? that's just pathetic.

 

[ebola?]

>>And how, in any way, does this argument between me and this other person demonstrate the "pitfalls" of academic philosophy? It got out of hand, but I was simply debated his postulations with the use of of satire and sarcasm. What's with the personal vendeta against me? I would not say I belong to a group of people who engage in academic philosophy and create "pitfalls" by discussing my beliefs on a message board made for that purpose. But thanks for the misjudgement of my character based on a short series of posts on a message board.>>

Erm...I wasn't making any sort of statement about your character...or even arguing that academic philosophy succumbs to a certain set of pitfalls. It's just a topic up for debate.

ebola

 

[pennywise]

That's funny, I could have sworn Nozick, Camus (won the nobel prize for literature), Baudrillarde, and most any philosophy teacher would never make the mistake of assuming that ANY meaninful knowledge that could possibly be learned by the fast food industry would be of any use to an individual concerned with the seeking of truth and not be mention making loads of cash publishing books and teaching at universities. But hey, maybe you're right. Maybe there is more than meets the eye in knowing how to buy wholesale, unhealthy, processed, infested "food" and put it together, not unlike the way any person with at least 4 or 5 good braincells would. Maybe I should should go major in business and live my life collecting ties and having a fit ever time I spill coffee on my new, expensive business suit. You know, the suit that basically has "tool" written all over it?

Let me think here: Master the art of frying a string of potato in a "french" fashion and hone my skills at counting money from a drawer which I believe is a skill I attained in elementry school...or...lend a curious attitude into the pursuit on knowledge and chistle the mind into an inquisitive, skeptical organism used soley for the purpose of uncovering the truths of the universe, which are, by the way, the only questions worth inquiring. But you go ahead and master the burger. But remember: Bun, patty, condiments (make sure you obey the desired condiments from the tool whol placed the order, thus making you near worthless besides having the ability to play servent to obese wastes of matter), top bun. Sounds like success to me!

from a pragmatic and economic point of view, your academic philisophical pursuit lends itself only to the world of academics. i dont see anyone hiring "philosophers" anywhere except universities, and in that case its not the easiest position to get anyway. Not only do you have to have a very high level degree, like a phd, from a respected if not prestigious university, you also have to have strong social connections as well as respect in the academic world. Having a bachelors degree in philosophy gets you none of this. If anyone is going to end up flipping burgers its you, although i suppose you will be able to comprehend the "questions of the universe" while you are doing it (although i would imagine theoretical physics would be a better approach to get any kind of "questions of the universe" answered to any degree of certainty. philosophy tends to produce more questions than tangible results). As to the original question (ie, why i have problems with people regurgitating philosphy classes) i would imagine the best way to actually learn philosophy would be reading the original texts than what some guy posts on the internet. Unless someone has an original view or interpretation, i dont see the point.

Did he consider any other positions besides that of a gas station attendent? Working in a book store? A record store? A greenhouse? Writing a book? Sorry, but that was a terrible justification for pennywise's post.

All these jobs would prefer retail experience above a philosophy degree im sure. How does an understanding of philosophy help when all you are doing is cleaning the floor or making sales or telling people where to find the new jay-z cd? Most of these jobs arent much different from working at mcdonalds anyway......

I started by making the observation that alot of the posts in this forum are rehashes of undergraduate philosophy classes (not to mention that no one ever cites the source for these ideas [so and so says.....]). That was it, i didnt even make any stated judgement based on that statement, everyone just jumped to conclusions like i was attacking philisophy in general. I was just going to leave it at that when you made the assertion that somehow i was going to end up at mcdonalds while you, touting your philosophy degree, were somehow going to turn out as some kind of fucking cash machine.