Metaphilosophy
The Meaning of Philosophy
What defines philosophy and demarcates it from other fields? — Pfhorrest
Philosophy is the thing outside or on existing borders of "usefull" categories/views.
The Objects of Philosophy
What is philosophy aiming for, by what criteria would we judge success or at least progress in philosophical endeavors? — Pfhorrest
Philosophy tries to enable the expaning of borders or creating of new categories. This is mainly done by clarifing unclear concepts by creating models that aproximate roughly what is being talked about.
The Method of Philosophy
How is philosophy to be done? — Pfhorrest
Creative thinking that consists of a sufficient degree of critical thinking and rigor.
The Subjects of Philosophy
What are the faculties that enable someone to do philosophy, to be a philosopher? — Pfhorrest
Whatever faculties enable the creative and critical thinking. Further one could add containing a certain productive element that consists either of theory builiding or precise and usefull criticism.
The Institutes of Philosophy
Who is to do philosophy and how should they relate to each other and others, socially speaking? — Pfhorrest
Whoever wishs to do so. I don't think it's reasonable to suggest a specific way of relating to others. In general one might constrain it artificially by limiting based on max number due to philosophers being not short term productive for society and thus demanding a certain wealth of a society. However I think this is done rather automatically.
The Importance of Philosophy
Why do philosophy in the first place, what does it matter? — Pfhorrest
It improves the long term development of civilizations. Like science it does not produce instant results and instead shifts the results to the future. One can imagine it this way we need food now/being active harvesting ect but improve overall foodproduction by allowing one member to be passive and think about food harvesting.
Philosophy of Knowledge and Reality
The Meaning of Reality
What do descriptive claims, that attempt to say what is real, even mean? — Pfhorrest
Such claims try to express patterns or rather metapatterns that are sufficiently accurate and therefore applieable over a long time.
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
Mathematical claims are claims over a specific abstracted attribute of reality that uses at least some sets. In math itself they are relational statements over properties of the abstracted attribute. Due to math containing of general relational statements these statements can be used more or less fitting to "real" sets.
Note that real is here used as percieved reality amd not as groundtruth. This is important since we f.e. could argue that every human is an individual not equal to any other human. But since our brain can abstract this individuality away and form a set "humans" with more then one entity in it we f.e. can start counting humans.
The Objects of Reality
What are the criteria by which to judge descriptive claims, or what is it that makes something real? — Pfhorrest
Long term apropriate usability of the descriptiv claim. Therefore showing to be more or less apropriate. To make this a bit clearer compare it to science where a theory that lasts very long due to no one being able to find a better theory somehow shows a certain accuracy of the theory. Obviously it is not a purley time duration based (or only if you consider a new improved theory to be able to include all events explained by the previous theory + more). I excluded the range due to a theory or concept being possibly very stable locally. Not to overextend here but I think afterall the overall symbolsystem needs to fullfill this. There range matters but the issue is more complex.
The Methods of Knowledge
How are we to apply those criteria and decide on what to believe, what descriptive claims to agree with? — Pfhorrest
I am not convinced that we are able to applie those criteria at all. I rather hold the view that they playout over time. However I think that one can approximate it by considering consistency rigorosity, adaptivness, falsifieability and other simular estimators however they are highly dependant on the topic at hand.
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
I think there are two key ways to view minds in generall. First of they are based on computational machines which creates a necessity for computability in reasonable time (due to the brain being a highmaintance organe) to do that Mind simplifies a complex continuous ground truth into a discrete space which is the basis for believes aswell as judgments over beliefs(binary thinking). Secondly there exists in general the usefull concepts of creative/dynamic vs static/conserving principles. Humams in general are something that tries to conserve itself this can be seen in the simularity of dna that results in children being rather simular to their parents physically speaking(both have 2 legs and arms ect) the brain and with it the mind entails the creative part such that the brain might be simular to the parents but the thoughts not as much. Furthermore the mind itself consists iteslf of the same process attributes there exist conservative structures that want to maintain usefull believes (even if sometimes wrong) and other process that want to include new believes or improve on believes. In general this is also a function of age and other factors. Depending on the specific case one might be tilted into one direction.
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
A proper educational system should be learning based and not knowledgebased (learn how to learn). How to best teach that should be left to experts. How they socially relate is not very important. However students should also get to know based on the learning what a proper authority is and what not and how to assign justified authority to people. F.e. someone who repeatedly shows to have deep knowledge in a field should therefore be justifieably be seen as authority in said field however not necessary in others. While someone just claiming authoritie should be questioned to investigate it properly.
Bonus question: How do we get people to care about education and knowledge and reality to begin with? — Pfhorrest
I think people are per default interessted in educating especially young people. As I mentioned before the brain and it's creativity is a function of age aswell. F.e. A new born child has very few believes that are not stable(pretty new) so it per default wants to enrich it's mind with believes (thats why children are curious) however old people maybe have believes that are not uptodate but served them well over their entire life and thus are not likley to just "throw them out" for new beliefs where they do not know the worth.
Simular this is true for knowledge and reality. The reason for the self intrest is that it improves the succesrate and increases the longterm gain. Once you get older this gets less relevant.
The Importance of Knowledge
Why does is matter what is real or not, true or false, in the first place? — Pfhorrest
As mentioned above the succesrate is the important factor. However it is not as clear cut with truth as one might think. Imagine having poisones(eat=death) mushrooms and healthy mushrooms. In general the best case would be that we could distinguish exactly everytime we see a mushroom. F.e. All red mushrooms are poisones. However if this is not possible snd we accept that we make errord it might be beneficial to exclude healthy red mushrooms since the risk is not worth it. Furthermore lets assume we could always clearly find out how poisones a mushroom is but for red healthy ones we would have to invest a lot of time and brainpower into it. Both last mentioned cases illustrate that a less truthfull approach can be more beneficial due to minimizing risk or effort( where effort of finding out is higher the reward of eating the healthy mushroom and we could do other things in the same time) furthermore there might be addinional time constraints.
In general it isn't about truth and rather about best workable solution
Philosophy of Justice and Morality
The Meaning of Morality
What do prescriptive claims, that attempt to say what is moral, even mean? — Pfhorrest
They are largescale statements about the best set of relationships to optimize a society. F.e. A society that kills all of it's infants wont propagate.
Or more suttle s to close border society risks of becoming to static and getting outperformed by a more dynamic system. A to inclusive society might lead to the lack/inability of establishing an overall framework and thus bursting in different parts and possibly a chaotic state.
Bonus question: What do aesthetic claims, about beauty and comedy and tragedy and such, mean, and how do they relate to prescriptive claims about morality? — Pfhorrest
Aestetic claims can either be viewed to represent a simularity regarding the combinig structure of creative/conservative and therefore are pleasing. (take the image of humans having a frequency and aesthetic objects having an own frequencies simular to the human one or one that has a special relationship to our frequency)
Or that aestethics represent/contain a lot of metapatterns that we have learned to be usefull. F.e. Simple and deep.
(note this isn't something im to intrested in so my views are a bit on the fence hence i listed both possibilities that seem plausible to me)
The Objects of Morality
What are the criteria by which to judge prescriptive claims, or what makes something moral? — Pfhorrest
As I mentioned above the optimization of society. However this is a bit more to it. F.e. The subject at hand using morals is relevant to the appropriate framework based on the dimension it is looking at it. For example i consider the individual morality that is most beneficial to use a Kantian one. (Threat other humans as if they have inherent value) else one might up killing people for personal cain resulting in trauma. However if at a higher position f.e. as a military leader it quickly can become utilitarian if it is a given that people will die it is beneficial to minimize human cost and therefore giving orders that sactifice someone to save many (violating a kantian approach) however this applies only to non personal actions. In the daily interactions the military leader should still try to use a kantian view. Further the utilitarian domain should also be limited to a certain degree such that saving a individual or spending a large sum of money should always be decided in favor of the individual at that level. However at a higher level goverments would for example limit the ammount of money the miltary gets and thus enacting a broader utilitarian framework on said individuals life.
The Methods of Justice
How are we to apply those criteria and decide on what to intend, what prescriptive claims to agree with? — Pfhorrest
What specific claims to agree with should be up to society and it's configuration to determine. However in general it is a optimization problem where we want to maximize the overall well being while simulatinously maximizing the individual well being of worst cases.
The Subjects of Morality
What is the nature of the will, inasmuch as that means the capacity for intending and making such judgements about what to intend? — Pfhorrest
I think the result is a result of culture and it's influence on the individual as well as inherent factor in individulas that ranges over a certain distribution. This is relevant due to it influencing what one wills at the first place. The will and it's strength also depends on the specific case and how one vies oneself (on what side of the maximization problem do I see myself).
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? — Pfhorrest
A democracy, a combination of the public will and reflective processes in form of checks am balances that consider a broader framework then the voter might consider. They should relate to each other via discussion and a certain form of procedure to guarantee a safeguarding of both parts of the discussion (the active part/will of the people and the passive part/reflective mechanisms)
Bonus question: How do we get people to care about governance and justice and morality to begin with? — Pfhorrest
The caring about said points is given by default, since they are influences on each individuals life. Furthermore culture and education certainly influences these aspects. However simular to the case of the philosopher and scientist it shouldn't be viewed as every member of society needing to have a to strong intrest in governance. Else we get a to big overhead of passive elements in society. The handling of this is already build in to democracy where few people get chosen to focus on the passive aspects more strongly. Creating amore specialized and proper working system.
The Importance of Justice
Why does is matter what is moral or not, good or bad, in the first place? — Pfhorrest
The idea is that it is necessary for a certain ammount of trust/cooperation in a system wich overall increases the succesrate in a system if not overdone.
I like the example of teamsport. It is important for the players in a team to trust others which allows them to share responsibility (motivates passing the ball) this trust is to a certain degree given per default since the entire team wins and therefore each player and all get the price money. However if it is overdone and there is to few competition in a team this might lead to underperformace. Since there is also a necessity that people try to score and increase their individual value. Basically we also want people to try to score and in some instances refusing to pass further and take on individual risks and benefits. (Becoming man of the match ect) Societies can be viewed as teams where morals and laws function as trust building entities that allow to form better synergizing teams rather then just be a loosly connected group of individuals.
Bonus question:
What is the meaning of life? — Pfhorrest
The meaning of life is taking local process oriented actions. Like the saying that the way is the goal.
However there is no real "the meaning of live". This can be shown by following thoughtexperiment:
Imagine god exists and you get to talk to him and you ask him this question and he says something like "to have children" or the famous "42" or any other final goal. The answer at least to me always seems unstatisfactory no matter what answer you come up with.
Furthermore any final goal (that is reachable) would implie that after reaching the goal you have per definiton nothing left to do. You did it now what?
However if it is a goal that is not reachable it basically is a description of a process you ought to be undertaking. Meaning you have local challenges, aspirations and orienting yourself based on them. This doesn't mean that the orocess should be unguided. This somehow implies that there is no real meaning of life and rather an insentive to taking meaningfull local steps that are directed in a beneficial direction.
I think imagining children might be usefull if you have a child that is drawing something it has a local goal creating a picture(which compared to pictures of professional artists isn't good) however it is learning while doing so improving it skills (long term benefits/rough direction) and the result has a lot of meaning to them or their parents.
If you want to view it evolutionary I would say creating a future that still consists of living entities furthering the overall succestory of life in general.
Ps. Obviously the answers are a) Personal views and b) drastically reduced in length and simplified to fit to your questions c) Sorry in advance for the spelling mistakes
If something is unclear or if you have disagreements feel free to respond.
Ps2 To what comes to my mind when you say "what is your philosphy" i was anticipating a question of roughly the form "how do you think reality is fundamentaly working and how would you describe it" that I spend a lot of time on felt like it was missing.