The Meaning of Philosophy
What defines philosophy and demarcates it from other fields? — Pfhorrest
The Objects of Philosophy
What is philosophy aiming for, by what criteria would we judge success or at least progress in philosophical endeavors? — Pfhorrest
The Method of Philosophy
How is philosophy to be done? — Pfhorrest
One of the critiques of Platonic idealism that I haven't seen is what is sustaining these entities in some dimension? — Wallows
I don’t mind a small digression into Platonism vs nominalism vs mathematicism — Pfhorrest
I’m glad reading Wittgenstein was emotionally helpful to you, even if I end up not agreeing with his philosophy much. (I take pretty much the same attitude toward religious texts, for what that’s worth). — Pfhorrest
One might as well prescribe quietism about the natural sciences and say to stop investigating things and just accepted the world as it is; that would be absurd of course, but quietism about philosophy is equally absurd. — Pfhorrest
The Importance of Philosophy
Why do philosophy in the first place, what does it matter?
Bonus question: How do we get people to care about education and knowledge and reality to begin with?
The Importance of Knowledge
Why does is matter what is real or not, true or false, in the first place?
The Institutes of Justice
What is the proper governmental system, or who should be making those prescriptive judgements and how should they relate to each other and others, socially speaking?
The first and practically only rule is: know thyself. Anyone can say it, very few advance in it, hardly anyone masters it. — Wayfarer
Metaphilosophy
The Meaning of Philosophy
What defines philosophy and demarcates it from other fields? — Pfhorrest
The Objects of Philosophy
What is philosophy aiming for, by what criteria would we judge success or at least progress in philosophical endeavors? — Pfhorrest
The Method of Philosophy
How is philosophy to be done? — Pfhorrest
The Subjects of Philosophy
What are the faculties that enable someone to do philosophy, to be a philosopher? — Pfhorrest
The Institutes of Philosophy
Who is to do philosophy and how should they relate to each other and others, socially speaking? — Pfhorrest
The Importance of Philosophy
Why do philosophy in the first place, what does it matter? — Pfhorrest
Philosophy of Knowledge and Reality
My problem with Wittgenstein's account (at least as you tell it, corroborated by the bits of him I've seen elsewhere) is that even if the thesis of one's philosophy is "just do natural science", there is still philosophy to be done there: why do natural science and not anything else, what makes something natural science and not something else, how do you do natural science, etc. — Pfhorrest
But also, "just do natural science" doesn't even attempt to answer the last third of my set of questions, because the natural sciences are not in the business of prescribing at all, and so give no answers to questions about what prescriptions mean, how to judge them, etc. At best, saying "just do natural science" to that is merely saying they're meaningless and can't be judged, etc... which is just avoiding the question. — Pfhorrest
Prescriptions of what exactly? — Wallows
Unless you want to try to equate "ought" statements to some subset of "is" statements and then say we can do natural science to that, but then you need to philosophically justify that position still, so you're still doing philosophy, and you still might be wrong. (I think you would be, but I'm not here to preach my philosophy). — Pfhorrest
Philosophy of Knowledge and Reality
The Meaning of Reality
What do descriptive claims, that attempt to say what is real, even mean? — Pfhorrest
Bonus question:
What do mathematical claims, about numbers and geometric shapes and such, mean, and how do they relate to descriptive claims about reality? — Pfhorrest
Philosophy of Knowledge and Reality
The Meaning of Reality
What do descriptive claims, that attempt to say what is real, even mean? — Pfhorrest
Bonus question:
What do mathematical claims, about numbers and geometric shapes and such, mean, and how do they relate to descriptive claims about reaity? — Pfhorrest
The Objects of Reality
What are the criteria by which to judge descriptive claims, ... — Pfhorrest
... or what is it that makes something real? — Pfhorrest
The Methods of Knowledge
How are we to apply those criteria and decide on what to believe, what descriptive claims to agree with? — Pfhorrest
The Subjects of Reality
What is the nature of the mind, inasmuch as that means the capacity for believing and making such judgements about what to believe? — Pfhorrest
The Institutes of Knowledge
What is the proper educational system, or who should be making those descriptive judgements and how should they relate to each other and others, socially speaking? — Pfhorrest
Bonus question: How do we get people to care about education and knowledge and reality to begin with? — Pfhorrest
The Importance of Knowledge
Why does is matter what is real or not, true or false, in the first place? — Pfhorrest
Philosophy of Justice and Morality — Pfhorrest
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