This is a spin-off from another thread that asks the question: is there more than matter and mind?. It got me thinking and I'm sure, given the right mood, it would've caused a normal person to give it some thought, you know, use faer imagination, think of possibilities, consider the options available, and so on. Using one's imagination is a good thing...or so we think and so people say.

But is there truth in this?

How much of philosophy is a product of the imagination or, to put it bluntly, how much of it is mere speculation?

A whole lot I suppose - philosophy, after all, is, at its core, about the unknown. The knowns have promptly organized themselves, branched out and become independent subjects in their own right. The bottom line is that philosophy, precisely because it deals exclusively or primarily with the unknown, is, by and large, pure speculation, nothing but products of imagination if you will. This being so, debates and disagreement, arguments and refutations, are part and parcel of doing philosophy. I haven't said anything that should surprise/shock a philosopher; philosophers have come to believe that the seemingly endless back and forth between supporters of a philosophical position and their opponents is a normal state of affairs in their world. Not only that, philosophers have convinced themselves that this is philosophy itself.

However, in all of this, this interpretation of philosophy, one small fact is being overlooked/ignored by all philosophers. This small fact is that silence is an option. It isn't necessary that something be written or spoken on a topic - if one doesn't know anything about a particular issue, and that's almost everything in philosophy, it's not only ok but also a good idea to keep one's mouth shut. This small action, inaction rather, will work wonders. The following desirables can be realized if philosophers adopt this habit:

1. It'll put an end to evidently unproductive and tediously prolonged, sometimes over decades and centuries, argumentation on what are, in fact, figments of the imagination

2. Time and energy thus saved can be channeled into philosophical activities that promise tangible results

3. It'll educe/eliminate the risk of philosophers, and people in general, getting lost in what is a complicated maze of ideas, theories, arguments and counterarguments that are pure speculation and have little or nothing to do with the truth or reality

4. The exponential growth of false knowledge - knowledge that is imagination-based - will be halted and reversed and this would make it impossible for people, philosophers, good people, to form erroneous worldviews that arise therefrom.

5. Nothing else comes to mind. I'll take my own advice and shut up.