• TheMadFool
    13.8k
    To begin with I notice a sense of pride among philosophers who claim they're in the business of answering The Big Questions of Life and I feel those who wish to object to this claim will find it not only difficult but even impossible to do so; after all, philosophy concerns itself with the nature of the fundamental assumptions/axioms of all matters relevant to living itself.

    That said, another trope one frequently encounters is that in philosophy there are no right answers but only perspectives which I suspect eventually mature into entire belief systems. I reckon this is the reason for the existence of both mutually consistent and mutually inconsistent sets of belief systems e.g. materialism maybe compatible with atheism but not so with theism, etc.; the bottomline is the existence of a multitude of perspectives/belief systems on everything under the sun each cohering or not cohering with other belief systems.

    Last but not the least, people doing philosophy encounter another common creature in the philosophical jungle - this creature is all about detecting and rectifying inconsistences in our worldview. Philosophy advises everyone to examine their worldviews and weed out inconsistencies from them so what we're left with after is a harmonious coherence of ideas.

    Summary:

    1. Philosophy is an attempt to answer The Big Questions of Life. Self-explanatory

    2. Philosophy consists of belief systems that are either mutually consistent or not

    3. Philosophy concerns itself with discovering and finding a solution to inconsistencies in worldviews

    Given 1, philosophy deals with the big questions of life above it becomes imperative for people to do philosophy and 3, correcting inconsistencies in our worldview is a good method for that but the problem is 2, philosophy has so many belief systems that are either mutually compatible or not.

    As will be apparent to everyone, to do philosophy then amounts to selecting a set of ideas that consist of mutually compatible/consistent belief systems e.g. if you're a materialist then it would be preferable to be an atheist than a theist. Since I'm a novice this maybe a poor example but you get the picture - people would like to possess a worldview consisting of mutually compatible belief systems. Being a novice is also the reason why I feel this way.

    Easy to say but how practical is such an enterprise - search the philisophical jungle and determine which belief systems are compatible and then form a worldview? In my eyes this would be a very difficult undertaking: it will require a considerable amount of time and resources, something most people lack.

    My "solution" to this problem (the difficulty faced by people wanting to do philosophy but impeded by philosophy's inherent features and difficulties of time & resources) is to get professional philosophers to sit down together and sort belief systems into neat groups, each group composed of mutually compatible belief systems. For instance one group A may consist of mutually consistent beliefs x, y, z and another group B may have mutually consistent beliefs a, b, c, d. If such a scheme is then presented to the general public in book form it would go a long way in popularizing philosophy and also make them philosophers, in a quick and easy way, in their own right, in possession of an, at least, internally consistent worldview.

    The question that arises is why hasn't this been done until now or has it been done already? Is it impossible? Is it even a good idea?
  • god must be atheist
    5.1k
    Good idea, TheMadFool. And like all good ideas (and like all bad ideas) it has been done. One such example is this:
    https://www.amazon.ca/Introduction-Comparative-Philosophy-Travel-Philosophical/dp/0333930681
    An Introduction to Comparative Philosophy: A Travel Guide to Philosophical Space Paperback – Oct 24 2007 by Walter Benesch (Author)
    I simply googled "books on comparative philosophy for beginners". It may not refect perfectly what you propose is a fulfilment to a need currently felt, but it may be close.
  • TheMadFool
    13.8k
    Thanks for the info. :smile:
  • xyzmix
    40
    I think 2 is wrong.

    Philosophers also work with true statements, so it's not a belief system but there can be accurate assumptions/axioms.
  • David Mo
    960
    Leslie Forster Stevenson: Seven Theories of Human Nature, Oxford University Press.
    This is my most obvious option. There are many editions. More of a million of copies sold. I haven't read other ulterior sequels: Ten Theories of Human Nature, Twelve Theories of Human Nature, etc.
    A very good introduction to philosophy from Plato to Lorenz. Clear and distinct.
  • Bilge
    8
    how about starting with what it means to think philosophically? and what one's mind is actually trying to do when thinking philosophically? The answer to these would also show the way to answer your questions.
  • Antidote
    155
    Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now.
    Jon Peniel - The Children of the Law of One.
    Emerald Tablets of Thoth
    Socrates - Plato - Aristotle

    Keep in mind, the order of our history to assist in "which egg hatched which chicken".
    The Greeks had a massive impact on our language, as well as what we call things. Ultimately their lanaguage - through Latin - became our language.

    Rene Descartes said, "I think therefore I am". As Tolle excellently put it, this is to associate thinking with being which was a complete error, but he did highlight the mistake we make with our thinking, the fundamental error in our evaluation of the world. The correct statement should have been, "I think I think, therefore I think I am."
  • Pfhorrest
    4.6k
    An old version of my own philosophy book used to take kind of a similar approach, and shades of it still remain in the current version. That old version was going to be a dialogue between characters who each represented internally-consistent versions of broad strains of philosophy. As I described them in another thread recently:

    So basically you've got:

    - 1. The fideistic archetype

    - 2. The nihilistic archetype

    - 3. The scientistic/libertarian "silicon valley brogrammer" archetype, who is like a tempered version of 1 about descriptive matters and like a tempered version of 2 about prescriptive matters

    - 4. The constructivist/Marxist "social justice warrior" archetype, who is like a tempered version of 2 about descriptive matters and like a tempered version of 1 about prescriptive matters

    - Someone like 3 about descriptive matters and like 4 about prescriptive matters

    - Someone like 4 about descriptive matters and like 3 about prescriptive matters
    Pfhorrest
  • Pfhorrest
    4.6k
    Philosophers also work with true statements, so it's not a belief systemxyzmix

    Belief is not incompatible with truth. Knowledge is (at least) true belief.

    how about starting with what it means to think philosophically? and what one's mind is actually trying to do when thinking philosophically? The answer to these would also show the way to answer your questions.Bilge

    That is a good approach, and is basically starting with metaphilosophy, which is also how I get to those basic philosophical archetypes I describe above, by introducing a single error in one direction or another away from the principles I conclude are necessary to do what philosophy is aiming to do:

    I strongly suspect that such chains of inference at least tacitly underlie many philosophical views: those who see the rejection of fideism for criticism leading (so they think) to cynicism and thus nihilism, and to the rejection of transcendentalism for phenomenalism and thus (so they think) to nihilism again, rightly reject nihilism and thus (as they think necessary) phenomenalism with it, along with cynicism and thus (as they think necessary) criticism along with it, embracing transcendentalism and the fideism that it entails as their only hope (so they think) against nihilism. Conversely, those who see the rejection of nihilism for objectivism leading (so they think) to transcendentalism and thus fideism, and to the rejection of cynicism for liberalism and thus (so they think) to fideism again, rightly reject fideism and thus (as they think necessary) liberalism along with it, along with transcendentalism and thus (as they think necessary) objectivism along with it, embracing cynicism and the nihilism that it entails as their only hope (so they think) against fideism. This confusion of liberalism with fideism, or equivalently of criticism with cynicism, and likewise of phenomenalism with nihilism, or equivalently of objectivism with transcendentalism, leads many people, I suspect, to see the only available options as a transcendent fideistic view, or else a cynical nihilistic view. The differentiation of those superficial similarities and so the opening up of possibilities besides those two extremes is the key insight at the core of my entire general philosophy, embracing objectivism without transcendentalism, criticism without cynicism, liberalism without fideism, and phenomenalism without nihilism.The Codex Quaerentis: Commensurablism

    Where what philosophy is trying to do is:
    ... the pursuit of wisdom, not the possession or exercise thereof. Wisdom, in turn, does not merely mean some set of correct opinions, but rather is the ability to discern the true from the false, the good from the bad; or at least the more true from the less true, the better from the worse; the ability, in short, to discern superior answers from inferior answers to any given question.The Codex Quaerentis: Metaphilosophy
  • Pfhorrest
    4.6k
    @fdrake had some interesting comments on a similar line of thought in that same other thread I mentioned earlier:

    I arrange the forum into a few tendencies.

    There's the Wittgenstein monster.
    There's the libertarian keyboard warriors.
    There's the leftist keyboard warriors.
    There's the mystics.
    There's the denizens of the shoutbox/Lounge.
    There's the weirdo continental metaphysics people.
    There's outright bongclouds.
    There's the "learn math better" machine.
    There's the first fumblings in philosophy group, who are mostly new posters.
    A related group to the above, the Personal Theory of Everything group.
    There's the Pierce advocacy group.

    We're missing a few we had at the old place. At least they're not represented much any more.

    There was the jaded academic tendency.
    There were the logic bots.
    There was the Heidegger/destruction of metaphysics fanboy club.

    And there are the ever present lurkers.

    Edit: I forgot the "Interminable discussion of god therapy group"
    fdrake
  • Bilge
    8
    The most important aspect of learning about philosophical thinking is never being afraid of reinventing the wheel. That is the process in which you get beyond understanding and mere thought.

    What one needs to do, while reading philosophical works, is try to establish a set of principles like the one above. These principles should have a common denominator. This common denominator will also be what one can use to judge existing philosophical approaches. One important element of the common denominator is balance and avoiding dichotomies at any cost.

    The fate of all philosophical approaches is to evolve toward the internalisation of such principles.
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