• Pantagruel
    3.4k
    What is philosophy? We all know it is "love of wisdom". But practically speaking, in the real world as it is practised and instantiated by fun-loving people everywhere. Is philosophy an attitude? An academic discipline? A body of knowledge? Is it the foundation of all other knowledge? Or the culmination of it? Or just one specialized branch? What makes one a philosopher? A degree? Or a passion?

    For me, first and foremost, comes an unwillingness to accept, either the way things are, or the interpretation of the way things are. Dissatisfaction. But then it is what you do with that dissatisfaction that determines whether your next steps are on the philosophical path...or not.

    Maybe Aristotle?

    Since we are seeking this knowledge, we must inquire of what kind are the causes and the principles, the knowledge of which is Wisdom. If one were to take the notions we have about the wise man, this might perhaps make the answer more evident. We suppose first, then, that the wise man knows all things, as far as possible, although he has not knowledge of each of them in detail; secondly, that he who can learn things that are difficult, and not easy for man to know, is wise (sense-perception is common to all, and therefore easy and no mark of Wisdom); again, that he who is more exact and more capable of teaching the causes is wiser, in every branch of knowledge; and that of the sciences, also, that which is desirable on its own account and for the sake of knowing it is more of the nature of Wisdom than that which is desirable on account of its results, and the superior science is more of the nature of Wisdom than the ancillary; for the wise man must not be ordered but must order, and he must not obey another, but the less wise must obey him. (Metaphysics, Book 1, part 2)
  • Mww
    4.9k
    What is philosophy?Pantagruel

    What it is:
    “....Philosophy is the system of all philosophical cognition. We must use this term in an objective sense, if we understand by it the archetype of all attempts at philosophizing, and the standard by which all subjective philosophies are to be judged. In this sense, philosophy is merely the idea of a possible science, which does not exist in concreto, but to which we endeavour in various ways to approximate, until we have discovered the right path to pursue—a path overgrown by the errors and illusions of sense—and the image we have hitherto tried in vain to shape has become a perfect copy of the great prototype....”

    What it’s for:
    “....For, as the world has never been, and, no doubt, never will be without a system of metaphysics of one kind or another, it is the highest and weightiest concern of philosophy to render it powerless for harm, by closing up the sources of error....”

    What to do with it:
    “....Until that time, we cannot learn philosophy—it does not exist; if it does, where is it, who possesses it, and how shall we know it? We can only learn to philosophize; in other words, we can only exercise our powers of reasoning in accordance with general principles, retaining at the same time, the right of investigating the sources of these principles, of testing, and even of rejecting them....”

    For what it’s worth.
  • 180 Proof
    15.4k
    What is philosophy?Pantagruel

    Dialectical bubblegum.

    Is philosophy an attitude?

    No.

    An academic discipline?

    I hear there are endowed chairs. Formerly handmaiden to Theology, then mistress to Science, and now, in some (e.g. p0m0) quarters, turning tricks for all 31 flavors of "Woke"-Lit du jure.

    A body of knowledge?

    No. It's conceptually descriptive and methodologically interpretative, but not scientifically explanatory.

    Is it the foundation of all other knowledge?

    No. Philosophers propose criteria for judging claims, making arguments and methodically developing & interpreting (modes of) knowledge.

    Or the culmination of it? Or just one specialized branch?

    No. Philosophers conceptually interpret, and are thereby constrained by, knowledge-claims, or matters of fact.

    What makes one a philosopher? A degree? Or a passion?

    Despair.
  • 180 Proof
    15.4k
    elaborating:

    What makes one a philosopher? A degree? Or a passion?Pantagruel
    Despair ...

    (i.e. shock of "God is dead" (radical Mediocrity Principle) + the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics + ubiquitous fantasy & stupidity ("hell is other people") + the inexorable pendulum of boredom & pain + "love" always ends badly (heartbreak))
  • Sir2u
    3.5k
    What makes one a philosopher?Pantagruel

    The same thing that makes two a philosopher. Or you could try thinking about things.
  • jgill
    3.9k
    Sometimes it's all hat and no cattle. :roll:
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