So in your view to be called a philosopher you probably have to be a professional? — Tom Storm
I thought I spelled it out fairly clearly. — T Clark
But there is no relationship between the philosopher and the history of philosophical problems. How do you not spend your life devoted to problems long resolved? How do you avoid reinventing the wheel? What if you spend years contemplating what it is we can know with any certainty only to end up with a variation of 'I think therefore I am'? — Tom Storm
I think he's saying if you have to "pay your dues" to be a philosopher then how does he know if he's paid his dues? The example was studying over a line in Plato that you may consider mystic for decades and come out with the idea of objective justice after all that? In this sense they're using time and effort in established philisophy to see if that's paying dues. He was hoping for a very specific answer and finish line. — Shwah
Generally when someone calls themselves a practitioner, they have competence and expertise in the thing they practice. — Tom Storm
Generally, doing what we do here on the forum does not make you a philosopher. You have to put more on the line than we do. Again, that's a generality — T Clark
:up: :up:A philosopher should pay their philosophy dues. — T Clark
Plato calls them "sophists" and in his Dialogues depict Socrates engaging some in dialectics. Off the top of my head (for their egregiously fallacious rhetoric ("BS" ~ H. Frankfurt) and/or promiscuously underdetermiined / vague (obscurant) concepts): Ayn Rand, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Leo Strauss, Jacques Lacan, Jiddu Krishnamurti, L. Ron Hubbard, Joseph Campbell, C.S. Lewis, Fritjof Capra, Deepak Chopra, Ken Wilbur, Sam Harris, Marianne Williamson, William Lane Craig, Jordan Peterson, Richard Rorty ... :eyes: :shade:Are there any well known philosophers that one might argue isn't legitimate as a philosopher? — TiredThinker
While politicking, politricksters are sophists par excellence (i.e. ideologues, propagandists and/or opportunists).Also are politicians philosophers in the sense that they have views of [ ... ]? — TiredThinker
A self-acknowledged fool obsessively studying, and reflecting upon, foolery in order to unlearn (reduce) immiserating (maladaptive) habits of judgment & conduct, as a way of life, may be called a "philosopher". — "180
If being bad at something doesn't preclude admission then it seems to be a general will that allows identification. — Shwah
What attributes does a thinker have in order to be called a philosopher? — Tom Storm
:cool: :up:A self-acknowledged fool obsessively studying, and reflecting upon, foolery in order to unlearn (reduce) immiserating (maladaptive) habits of judgment & conduct, as a way of life, may be called a "philosopher".
— 180 Proof
This is close to explaining the meaning of my username. — Fooloso4
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