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I have a question just to see what your answer would be… why do you think philosophy is an important subject and why did it become something, in Plato’s time, that many contemplated??
I think of philosophy as the study of the most general kind of knowledge, the study of foundations. Is this important? It is for those of us who aren't satisfied with taking certain assumptions (of society, of science, of religion, etc.) for granted. Not taking things for granted is at the core of philosophy—and I'm sure there's a philosopher out there who disagrees with me! I would characterize it as always digging deeper and uprooting rather than building up.
Maybe that's why most people don't find it appealing—which, by the way, was true in Plato's time as well. I don't see that ever changing. Philosophers can get on people's nerves. Certain popular scientists call philosophy useless. That's okay! That's just their way of *trying* to do philosophy. :)
But the truth is, the vast vast majority of people care so little about philosophy they won't bother to call it useless; it will never occur to them to consider the question. They get on just fine without engaging in it directly; they don't feel any burning desire to know where their views come from and they won't question their assumptions until their assumptions stop working out for them in the course of their day to day lives. I think that's okay!
That said, I do wish a very basic Aristotelian-style logic class (not symbolic logic) were a core subject in every public school curriculum. We're required to take numerous math classes, but not logic? Logic is universally useful; it applies to everything. Everyone should at least know the difference between a valid and an invalid argument and how to spot informal fallacies. Just the basics. I think it would do the world a world of good.
I have a question just to see what your answer would be… why do you think philosophy is an important subject and why did it become something, in Plato’s time, that many contemplated??
Ah, a perennially interesting question!
I think of philosophy as the study of the most general kind of knowledge, the study of foundations. Is this important? It is for those of us who aren't satisfied with taking certain assumptions (of society, of science, of religion, etc.) for granted. Not taking things for granted is at the core of philosophy—and I'm sure there's a philosopher out there who disagrees with me! I would characterize it as always digging deeper and uprooting rather than building up.
Maybe that's why most people don't find it appealing—which, by the way, was true in Plato's time as well. I don't see that ever changing. Philosophers can get on people's nerves. Certain popular scientists call philosophy useless. That's okay! That's just their way of *trying* to do philosophy. :)
But the truth is, the vast vast majority of people care so little about philosophy they won't bother to call it useless; it will never occur to them to consider the question. They get on just fine without engaging in it directly; they don't feel any burning desire to know where their views come from and they won't question their assumptions until their assumptions stop working out for them in the course of their day to day lives. I think that's okay!
That said, I do wish a very basic Aristotelian-style logic class (not symbolic logic) were a core subject in every public school curriculum. We're required to take numerous math classes, but not logic? Logic is universally useful; it applies to everything. Everyone should at least know the difference between a valid and an invalid argument and how to spot informal fallacies. Just the basics. I think it would do the world a world of good.
Great questions! Thanks for asking!
What brings you to philosophy?