ANSWERS: 3
  • That's your made up definition of philosophy, right? Because in reality the definition is the study of wisdom. And it is not limited to words from long ago it's relevant today.
    • Mr PantsFellDown
      Yes, but isn't it only relevant in the same way the books egg-heady rich kids get to sit and write are? THOSE are new knowledges someone worked to present. Often they're things about life that needed pointing out, so someone did. But who ever reads those books? The author's point never reaches the common man. It never affects real life at all. It sits on a shelf and collects dust, along with the "works" of all the other privileged kids. ....Einstein said, of new knowledge being produced, that if one doesn't make the new understanding explainable in the simplest common man terms (so essentially Homer Simpson could understand it), then the knowledge is useless and will be forgotten and not used by life itself. ...So we have "privileged kids" who go to college, and are so used to money not even being a thought, they don't even pick a major with making money in mind (I dated a girl who attended for 8 years, majoring in Fine Arts. You know how many jobs she's qualified for? Right. Virtually none. But she never had to worry about that. Money to her is as available as oxygen. She only has to look at Daddy and cash flows at her. And THESE are the people who study things like Philosophy. WHAT I WANT TO KNOW: is do these people imagine that studying esoteric mental meanderings of dead privileged kids [ I didn't make up a definition, I'm stating in plain speak what it is! ] is producing anything useful in real life now? Because what I've researched suggests the answer is no. And it's not really different than how kids used to have to learn Latin, a dead language of NO usefulness. Philosophy, as far as I can tell, is only that. Some rich kids, along the way got to sit and ponder thoughts they imagined were grand, instead of getting a job. And so now we offer college students the choice of learning about what they wrote. But it doesn't apply to life. It's knowledge of no use. THIS is what I wanted rebuttal about...tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that adding fries to some dolts drive-through order is affected by the grand thoughts of rich kids, pretending they're more important than the rest of us somehow. SHOW me ONE PLACE in life where knowledge "philosophers" conjured up was ever applied to life..(Please forgive all the words. Sometimes I have a hard time making a point clear.)
    • Mr PantsFellDown
      Yes, but HOW is it relevant Linda? When does the pimply guy at McDonalds use this "wisdom"? When does the common man, or common life at all employ it?
    • Linda Joy
      I consider myself a philosopher. I've never been rich or privileged but I know where to go to find wisdom, although I'm sure you would disagree with that as well. One particular idea I considered philosophical was when I realized morality software would have to be programmed into autonomous vehicles. In an unavailable accident situation where a choice has to be made to kill one person or another, or to kill one over killing several. .. Seeking wisdom is never outdated.
  • Philosophy is/was a religion in ancient Greece. A grove near Athens, named Akademos, was sacred to the goddess of wisdom. Membership was by invitation only, and that is the origin of our academic system. Then as now, academia claimed ownership of all knowledge and rejected discoveries by outsiders who did not have their approval.
    • Mr PantsFellDown
      Interesting take ("a religion"). That's just what's been occurring to me about it...that priveleged kids are sitting around conjuring thoughts of SOCIAL CODE essentially, rules and reasons of behavior..things religion normally dispenses. ...Thank you for that answer. It explains a couple things.
  • 8-18-2017 The problem is not the subject, it is the students. The subject is "worldly wisdom", but the students find that they can learn endless mental tricks by reciting words and names as if they actually meant something. If you point out that they are not actually saying anything important, they get extremely rude.
    • Jewels Vern
      BTW here is a link to a site I recently found where they espouse actual worldly wisdom, although they don't call it that: http://www.artofmanliness.com

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