Lots of things are possible. The question is which is most likely, and best supported by the evidence. — gurugeorge
One has to be on guard against various ways of going astray of course, but that's partly why we engage in dialogue, to make sure we aren't going crazy :) — gurugeorge
But to answer your original question and avoid further miss understanding, yes I think some people become pretentious. — Sir2u
But it's easy to bloviate before then, before you've really understood the problems deeply enough, and come to rash conclusions — gurugeorge
And here we have the pretence that my question was, "Do some people become pretentious?". Or perhaps it's just a misunderstanding. Despite the similarity in wording, pretentiousness - which is synonymous with ostentatiousness - does in fact have a different meaning to what I was getting at - which is more like self-deception. — Sapientia
It's curious that some responders have chosen to answer their own questions instead of my own. — Sapientia
Oh, I wouldn’t wanna come out in a rash conclusion. — CuddlyHedgehog
Not people. You. — Sapientia
I am confident that there are others with the ability to see what you do not. — Sapientia
Do a poll to find out if anyone understood what you meant. — Sir2u
But that's evasive. — Sapientia
Was it an exaggeration, perhaps? — Sapientia
Is everything really a matter of personal opinion? — Sapientia
Is there something about philosophy which invites or attracts a sort of pretence? Is there something about it which opens up for debate that which we already know? Is everything really a matter of personal opinion? — Sapientia
What is faith? What is education? What is the purpose of education? What is scientism? What is a philosophical question? What is common sense? What is Google? — Sapientia
Most of us understood, dear. — CuddlyHedgehog
Is there something about philosophy which invites or attracts a sort of pretence? — Sapientia
But to answer your original question and avoid further miss understanding, yes I think some people become pretentious. — Sir2u
And here we have the pretence that my question was, "Do some people become pretentious?". — Sapientia
Oh, I wouldn’t wanna come out in a rash conclusion. — CuddlyHedgehog
No it's not, it directly addresses your "what if?"s.
You'd have to give me a reason to think one of your "what if?"s is true, for me to climb down from an "always." — gurugeorge
No, it was a figure of speech - or an admonition, perhaps. Obviously "always" terminates at when you do actually start to understand the problems in a deep way, which as i said probably takes about 10 years or so (at any rate, probably more years than it takes to get a doctorate in Philosophy ;) ),. — gurugeorge
Is there something about philosophy which invites or attracts a sort of pretence? Is there something about it which opens up for debate that which we already know? Is everything really a matter of personal opinion?
— Sapientia
I think philosophy can invite a sort of pretence -- but I don't know I'd say that said pretence is unique to philosophy. I think that simple questions like the one's you use as examples can be asked earnestly. I'd say there are times that what I thought I knew appears, for whatever reason at that time, to be something I don't know -- and so I ask something along the lines of...
What is faith? What is education? What is the purpose of education? What is scientism? What is a philosophical question? What is common sense? What is Google?
— Sapientia
... which is not to say that said question is necessarily profound. Sometimes the reason I might ask such a question is something as simple and boring as self-deception or confusion.
but not always.
I'm not sure I follow why you're asking if everything is a matter of personal opinion, though. If it were, wouldn't the simple questions have whatever answer we wish, after all? It seems to me that in asking a question that seems a bit silly -- if we are asking earnestly -- we are hoping for something more than mere personal opinion, even if the answer doesn't quite reach the demands of knowledge. — Moliere
What I do not understand was why he was saying that there was pretence about what his question was. — Sir2u
If the people are pretending, they are pretentious. — Sir2u
Did you look up the meaning of snake oil? — Sir2u
Are you seriously suggesting you don't know what an idea is? — Janus
If you know how to use the word then you know what you are talking about. It seems to me that you are asking what an idea *really* is in some imagined ultimate or metaphysical sense. We don't need to know that to know that two atheists share in common the rejection of the idea of God, whatever the idea might *ultimately* consist in. — Janus
I can sort of relate to what I'm critical of here. I'm certainly not suggesting that I've never been guilty of it myself. It's just that, with hindsight, I look back at it differently. We experience these moments of realisation from time to time, and they don't always cast things in a good light - or at least they shouldn't, otherwise I'd think that there's something wrong with you: a chronic case of naivety, perhaps.
I once - "famously" :joke: - asked, "What is an apple?". Although, even then, there was part of me that thought, "Do we really not know?", and that's quite a forceful impression. It's a question I think we - those of us with a philosophical bent - could do with asking ourselves more often. — Sapientia
And then there are the times when I'd say that when something may look silly on its surface it actually ends up interesting. "What is Google?" actually struck me that way -- on its surface its sort of silly, but understanding the ins and outs of an algorithm is actually kind of interesting. — Moliere
But I think I can dig the gist of what you're on about here -- or at least this is how I'd put it, while uncertain that you'd agree with this phrasing -- that sometimes the problem isn't what we're asking for, but rather the very question we are asking. — Moliere
M'kay, maybe there is more disagreement after all then.Indeed, I don't agree with the phrasing. The way I see it, it can be both the very question and what we're asking for. But acknowledging at least part of the problem is a start. — Sapientia
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