(2 water molecules) — CallMeDirac
How do you know this? :eyes:What of Thales, who had no predecessors to engage with? — CallMeDirac
Why do you ask me about being "dedicated to the field" when I wrote dedicated ... to reflective / contemplative discipline-as-a-way-of-life?If they are philosophers, then is only dedication to the field required? Can one not be dedicated to a field without education in the field?
Confusing yourself – shadowboxing – with a strawman.If one requires education in a field to be considered in the field, how can one found a field or school of thought?
Okay, no shame in it, you simply do not know – no one, in fact, knows – that Thales "had no predecessors." Appeal to ignorance. Neither you nor anyone else knows who his predecessors might have been (if he had had any). Calling him "the first philosopher" (Aristotle believed this a couple of centuries after Thales' had died) does not entails – hasty generalization – that he had "no predecessors", only that none have become known to his posterity.Given current knowledge,historians[Aristotleans] consider Thales the first philosopher, if that's the case he had no predecessors. — CallMeDirac
Can one who is unintelligent not practice philosophy? If the practice of philosophy does not make one a philosopher, why must there be other characteristics to define a philosopher? — CallMeDirac
Our definitions differ in that you consider mine to simplistic and all-inclusive, and I consider yours arbitrary and with no objective way to determine who deserves a title. Can you provide some way to determine what makes one a philosopher more specific than "to be part of a tradition"? — CallMeDirac
A philosopher is anyone who examines the nature of life and metaphysics — CallMeDirac
Philosophers are defined by doing philosophy. But how? Competently. Who's to judge? Her peers in the context of the extant philosophical tradition wherein living philosophers (academic or otherwise) dialogue with (the extant works and embodied influences) – perhaps dozens of generations before her – dead philosophers. — 180 Proof
But why is competence necessary to be a philosopher, why does one have to be competent to be a member of a field? — CallMeDirac
Elbow patches on a jacket? — Mayor of Simpleton
No that's English literature. Philosophy is a comb over and a black turtleneck. — Tom Storm
I think ucarr might mean 'engaging'. — Tom Storm
We live in different worlds. Put differently, we interpret ideas
in accordance with a larger worldview that each of us carry around with us. — Joshs
A given culture consists of many worldviews that often don’t understand each other, as our politically polarized times demonstrates. — Joshs
If a philosopher or writer or scientist offers an idea that we cannot assimilate within our worldview we will reject or misinterpret that idea, or it may simply be invisible to us. — Joshs
It does t matter how many ways you try and package the content of a given philosophy. You could translate it into poetry, have it delivered by a stand-up
comedian or by corporate-style bullet point presentation. — Joshs
The central problem won’t be the delivery or language or style, but the readiness of the recipient to assimilate it into their worldview. — Joshs
The ‘everybody’ you talk about is a fiction. It can take hundreds of years for segments of a given culture to grasp the ideas of a certain era of philosophy. Conservative America is a long way from understanding post-Hegelian thought, which is already 200 years old, and you can’t blame it on the messenger. — Joshs
Perhaps. Nonetheless your "point" is irrelevant as well.That's still irrelevant to my point. — CallMeDirac
Can one who is unintelligent not practice philosophy? If the practice of philosophy does not make one a philosopher, why must there be other characteristics to define a philosopher? — CallMeDirac
Can one not be dedicated to a field without education in the field? If one requires education in a field to be considered in the field, how can one found a field or school of thought? — CallMeDirac
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