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Philosophy as a public service

nautil.us

11–20 of 99 posts

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#11
The problem with philosophy that irks so many over here mainly stays in the anglophone curricula these days, which prepare pupils analytically aka to function (get a job, be independent, start a family, pay taxes, buy goods) instead of continentally aka to live (grow a conscience, ask who you are, live for experience, avoid authority, exchange and reuse goods). Another point is that competitive societies do not rate aggregative unfruitful manners, which also shows in the borderly sociopathic attitude towards any kind of regulation.

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#13
post #8
post #4

I don't see how this has anything to do with philosophy, thought experiments as such arent't philosophical, some philosophy (mostly anglosphere) just uses them to draw conclusions from common sense intuitions. This kind of 'philosophy' has been a public service for as long as art exists which often draws from concepts of science and philosophy and presents it in a easily digestible form to common sense.

It begs the question of what philosophy is. If it is "love of wisdom", as the Ancient Greeks suggested, then it seeks to know all things. That is, it seeks knowledge of what is, not of what is most likely, which is the domain of modern science.

> begs the question

I normally wouldn’t be pedantic about this but because this is a discussion about philosophy I have to point out that it doesn’t “beg the question”. “Begging the question” is an informal logical fallacy where an argument’s premises assume that its conclusion is true so it ends up being circular. I think you mean it “raises the question”.

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#14
post #8
post #4

I don't see how this has anything to do with philosophy, thought experiments as such arent't philosophical, some philosophy (mostly anglosphere) just uses them to draw conclusions from common sense intuitions. This kind of 'philosophy' has been a public service for as long as art exists which often draws from concepts of science and philosophy and presents it in a easily digestible form to common sense.

It begs the question of what philosophy is. If it is "love of wisdom", as the Ancient Greeks suggested, then it seeks to know all things. That is, it seeks knowledge of what is, not of what is most likely, which is the domain of modern science.

Postmodernist's would disagree with you heavily that the two domains intersect.

Philosophy goal is uncover truth where science is restricted mostly to the realm of facts and empirical truths.

An example would be the question of the meaning of life, science has little ability to answer this question other that to claim it doesn't actually exist or it's just a complex expression of atoms working together where with philosophy there are countless ways to answer this age old question.

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#16
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It begs the question of what philosophy is. If it is "love of wisdom", as the Ancient Greeks suggested, then it seeks to know all things. That is, it seeks knowledge of what is, not of what is most likely, which is the domain of modern science.

> begs the question I normally wouldn’t be pedantic about this but because this is a discussion about philosophy I have to point out that it doesn’t “beg the question”. “Begging the question” is an informal logical fallacy where an argument’s premises assume that its conclusion is true so it ends up being circular. I think you mean it “raises the question”.

It was clear from the context that "begs the question" here essentially means "raises the question," as is often the case. If there is no confusion, there should be no need for clarification.

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#17
post #9

Relatedly, if anyone is looking to get started with philosophy, Crash Course has a fantastic video series on it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdY...

Another approach is just listening to what philosophers are thinking. The Philosophy Bites podcast catalog is great for that. https://philosophybites.com/

Another excellent philosophy podcast is The Partially Examined Life:

https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#18
post #8
post #4

I don't see how this has anything to do with philosophy, thought experiments as such arent't philosophical, some philosophy (mostly anglosphere) just uses them to draw conclusions from common sense intuitions. This kind of 'philosophy' has been a public service for as long as art exists which often draws from concepts of science and philosophy and presents it in a easily digestible form to common sense.

It begs the question of what philosophy is. If it is "love of wisdom", as the Ancient Greeks suggested, then it seeks to know all things. That is, it seeks knowledge of what is, not of what is most likely, which is the domain of modern science.

"it seeks knowledge of what is, not of what is most likely, which is the domain of modern science"

Physics, arguably the bedrock and most "certain" of the sciences, has long struggled with what the phenomena it studies actually are, leading to a "shut up and calculate" attitude popularized by Feynman, where physicists just throw their hands up and focus on the mathematics and abstractions rather than engaging with the ultimate what and why questions, which they leave (rightly) to philosophy.

The boundary questions (for example, what is physics, what is chemistry, what are their proper objects of study, and so on) are also philosophical questions, and not anything any amount of empirical study, hypothesizing, predicting, or model-making can solve.

Questions about what humanity as a whole, any subgroup of humans, or any individual one of us should do are also not amenable to scientific inquiry. Neither are questions of what is right and wrong. Science can only ever be descriptive, not prescriptive.

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#19

Relatedly, if anyone is looking to get started with philosophy, Crash Course has a fantastic video series on it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdY...

Another approach is reading a few articles from https://www.iep.utm.edu/ and http://plato.stanford.edu/

But IMHO the best course of action would be to acquire logic proficiency first. And no, I'm not talking about the logic programmers usually know, but rather formal and informal philosophical logic.

Proficiency in logic is to philosophy like reading sheet music is to music. You can get by without it, but it will help you immensely.

Re: Philosophy as a public service

#20
post #9

Relatedly, if anyone is looking to get started with philosophy, Crash Course has a fantastic video series on it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdY...

Another approach is just listening to what philosophers are thinking. The Philosophy Bites podcast catalog is great for that. https://philosophybites.com/

I enjoyed http://philosophizethis.org/ for another option!
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