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The Value of Philosophy Today

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Quantum Perception

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You think it has some or none at all? Why?


IMO:
Philosophy's wisdom(Truth) lies in the understanding that one may always be wrong or not in complete understanding of something (if complete understanding is even possible). That perspective is gained through critical thinking, the main practice in philosophy.
So in today's world knowing that one may be wrong about something is a great way to keep one's perceptions on the "bright side" of life(almost like cognitive therapy). But it has the potential (and I don't think it's equal) to cause anxiety.
 
i have a degree in philosophy, it's useless by itself but it helps me win arguments lol. It seemed to me that when i was in school that we never figured anything out, just raised more questions and critiqued everything, which is the point of the OP i guess. If anything philosophy makes me cynical about society and people. It's fun to use logic and reason to point out fallacious reasoning in others however.

The value is in logic and ethics IMO. Sometimes i just end up boggling my mind thinking about things though. Logic helps create efficiency so philosophy is very useful in business. Philosophy also teachers you to read carefully, and the understanding of ethics really helps in law, other than that I regret wasting my time, maybe if I were from a super rich family and never had to work it'd be great just to sit, read and think forever.

I agree with the OP though, critical thinking is certainly useful however it's frustrating to deal with ignorance; with some people you could throw them in a fire and they still wouldn't accept a reasonable or sound argument.
 
I think philosophy is in essence a sport. Like many sports, it has professional leagues, a rich history, long-established schools of training, quite a lot of intrigue for people who like to watch others compete, and an ability to attract some of the world's best and brightest in certain respects, but also some of the world's most egotistical. And most of all, like any sport, its value to the human project doesn't come directly from glory on the field, but from the way playing it and questing for glory in it (or even just being a passionate fan of it!) molds the way people live their lives and interact with people outside of the game.

I've met many successful businesspeople, lawyers, religious leaders, academics in all fields, and medical doctors who've studied a good bit of philosophy, and say it's been an invaluable training ground for how to ask the right questions and make the right inquiries in their line of work. Different material, but same basic mental process.

I'm beginning to think the big questions' seeming simplicity but actual insolubility is key to their value in getting people used to exerting their minds.
 
People who lived 3000 years ago weren't any less smart than we are today.

So we can travel to another country in record time, build cars and launch space ships, but I don't think that is any reflection of how intelligent we are. Where has knowledge really gotten us? To me, it seems all knowledge is just a reference point, a way to think on the same level. Knowledge seems to be the idea that this will happen if I do this because it happened last time I tried. I feel knowledge ultimately lacks something and that is meaning.

So it happened. We do it again and it happened again the same way. We now say we KNOW something, but it's not understanding. In all the accumulated knowledge of humanity I don't think anything has been resolved, as it has just led to more questions. We lack real understanding because all it seems we're doing is recording patterns in nature and saying, "Now we know." Philosophy is the why, to crack open life and examine all the patterns we already knew about and equate them to some absolute. Absolute what? All any deep research can tell us about it is that it can be anything, because the result of any measuring device will return only what it was designed to detect. We find only what we were looking for.

I know well what knowledge has brought to the table but it doesn't get us any closer to a sense of purpose.
 
Quantum Perception said:
^Value is only measured by the frequency of exchanged money?
Click to expand...
Well now in the final analysis when all luxury is strpped away would we not fight like wild animals for the material prizes that would ensure our ability to survive & God willing ;) procreate ?
I think philosophy is largely an entertainment for people with sufficient material wealth - I would concede that there are philosophies which exist which are directly related to obtaining & controlling material wealth & that those philosophies include the use of religions with their own philosophical meanderings.
 
Our thinking benefits from auto-critique. Seems straightforward to me. However, for me, philosophy is the end, not a means.

ebola
 
The process of holding systems of ideas to scrutiny fulfills me more than does scrutinizing ideas in order to do other useful things.

ebola
 
Thoughts and ideas are fun; I seem to live in them most of the time. It is interesting to try to deconstruct, analyze, understand. But it seems to me I can let thoughts control me or I learn to use them as a tool without becoming becoming a prisoner to them.

Knowledge in itself can often just create anxiety; I've seen that in lots of people who follow current events religiously and become miserable and angry as a result. So to know, in itself, doesn't seem to do much. I imagine that a balance of knowledge/wisdom is optimal.
 
Most good philosophy is to some degree hinged on what we know.
And in some cases it is focused on questioning what we know.....
 
back in the days in greece, philosophy and science were pretty much interchangeable words
the way i see it is that science is a objective science while philosophy is a subjective science
in both case its a matter of understanding reality and being able to articulate how it works
a lot of what was popular at the time was trying to understand the internal logic of how speech worked and try to use that to win any argument (rhetoric)
since we use language to express ourself we started by understanding how to use language in a logical and concise matter, we gave birth to reason as a mean to master the world and people around us

but then philosophy didnt started with the greek, and the greek themself took it from the egyptian, but it was happening elsewhere in the world too and i think that philosophy is today more valuable than ever because we have access to so much, so much has being built as a way to understand and utilize the world we live in as a instrument we can play with
from china, india, mesoamerica, mesopotamia and everything else we came up with up till today
its a rich history of ways to connect with the world and understand ourself and our place in it

but what i think is missing in the west is a reconnection with philosophy as a subjective science (human science), not just as a history lesson of old philosopher or some fancy word up in the clouds for people who have time to waste
but something as legitimate and useful as objective science
we need to get deep into the human psyche, the nature of consciousness, the manifestation of spirituality thru-out history...

the funny thing about quantum physic is that your intent can change the result of a experiment
so what was suppose to be objective science turns into subjective science...(but then idk i might be getting this wrong)
thats what i think need to happen with subjective science, we need to start being able to quantify god, gods, deities, entities, ufos, angel, spirits, and all those subjective experience
as much as we divided the two we need to be able to reconcile the two
because at the end they are one and the same
simply side of the same coin
philosophy is the language we use to put our point across
its the way to connect the two realm
its what started the whole thing in the first place

if philosophy is a love of wisdom, and if wisdom is something we associate with being old, as in we dont see babies as wise men, wisdom comes from the accumulation of knowledge in your head, understanding in your heart and experience in your body
well then we should have accumulated a whole lot of wisdom these past couple thousand years as a species
but does it shows ? well for the most part we dont treat women as property anymore, slavery is almost extinct, a lot less people blindly believed in superstition, we are more concern about the environment, more concern about our health, more sensible to our personal identity, we give more credit to our individual self, we have human rights, we frown upon racism....
i think we are indeed wiser as a species

i think that philosophy can build bridges between people, between nations and within ourself
in a situation where today we can all exchange ourself on the internet with the rest of the planet i think that philosophy becomes our greatest tool for the gathering of mankind as one cohesive entity

"One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right"
 
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