Only the unwise seek - love - wisdom, or strive to flourish from understanding - contemplating - the variety of ways in which we are unwise (i.e. confused, perplexed, frustrated, oblivious, sleepwalking-through-our-lives aka "foolish") that is broadly designated ontology, axiology & epistemology (prioritized by whatever schema (metaphysics) is deemed most illustrative, or illuminating). For an unwise few this becomes a way of life (ethos) - aka "thinking" - which consists in both reflective inquiries (logos) and reflective practices (mythos). — 180 Proof
Also those are dolphins not porpoises. — Pfhorrest
For example, french was the most beautiful and clear language in the world. — bcccampello
I liked the concept of philosophy as "martial arts for the mind". So I googled it. And sure enough that phrase is being used as a come-on for selling services for corporate training : "get off your butt, and let someone flip you on your butt, to relieve stress".It is much like martial arts for the mind: — Pfhorrest
Yes, there could be many purposes to philosophy, as also pointed by Mo.Then again, I didn't really answer the question of the OP of 'what is the purpose of philosophy', but rather addressed 'what is a purpose of philosophy'. — Mayor of Simpleton
Agreed. Other than 'showing the fly how to get out of the fly-bottle', proposing ("self help" or "utopian") plans recipes & rituals for ("successfully") living inside or beyond (e.g. the fly-bottle) amounts to nothing but sophistry.The main (only?) use of philosophy is that it helps to question the unquestionable. That is why its tool is analysis.
Other purposes are illusory and disproportionate to its real powers. When philosophy offers itself to be a guide for humanity it becomes a religion in disguise or falls flat on its face. — David Mo
In other words - as I've always reflected on this "love of" - to seek what 'the wise' seek: not merely "to be wise", but understanding how to live - judge & practice - less unwisely (especially in circumstances where and when folly - misjudgment & malpractice - is easier aka "the fly-bottle").To love wisdom. — dussias
Of course, even then we have biases based on our life experiences and personal inclinations. But, hopefully, the more aware we can be of our biases, the more thorough we can become in the process of searching for underlying truths.
I do not want to found anything on the incomprehensible. I want to know whether I can live with what I know and with that alone. — Albert Camus
Perhaps because "these" esoteric "paths" make it easier to mystify & stupify than to clarify & edify; which, thereby, is probably why Western philosophy - reflective inquiry, freethought - began in Ionia with pre-Socratic proto-scientists (i.e. natural philosophers) such as Thales, Pythagoras, Anaximander, Heraclitus, et al critically deconstructing the esoteric woo-of-the-gaps (i.e. begging questions of Origins, Values, Explanations with 'mysteries' ... and fallacies) of local myths & ritual cults. Logos striving against (yet never without) Mythos.Philosophy is to an extent mute on these paths. — Punshhh
I don’t want to believe, I want to know. — Carl Sagan
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