I want to learn more about Philosophy

Originally posted by Romantic_Rebel
I'm curious about Philosophy now. Would any of you mind helping me out what Philosophy is and where do I start?
I did find this site! Any help would be great!
Squashed Philosophers

Go to your library and just pick up a random philosophy book and read stuff, if it's intresting, these philosopher's are just coding there memes on paper. They all represent a age of though and it's changes into futures.

Well first of all, there is no simple answer to the question. But I like to put it this way: Philosophy is a natural feature of humans organized in a civilizational way. Philosophy is about thinking about thinking, exploring the foundations and limits of our reason. Philosophy is the science that has itself as a subject.

Western Philosophy is usually said to be born in Asia Minor around the times that the Greeks had their 15 minutes of fame 3 thousand years ago. The first traces of of this Philosophy where rather mystical and counterintuitive to contemporary minds, but public discourse and private study about the questions of life and existence got institutionalized in society and eventually culminated in the classical figures of Socrates, Plato and Aristoteles. There you have an increasing tendency of critical thought and the search for the nature of logic, truth and knowledge among many other things - Philosphy did not become an independent branch from Natural Science etc. until late in the middle ages, it was natural to be a chemist, philospher, doctor, etc.. In fact, much of what we today call classical logics, established in the 19th century in Germany and Birtain is based on Aristoteles original conception of logic and valid argumentation.

But there's simply no way to really get the essence of what philosophy is. Is it books? Or is it a practice? Is it merely history, or genuinely an independent discipline? I must say that the more I confronted these questions ( Iv'e majored a bachelor degree in Philosophy) the more I understood how complex and almost unanswerable they were. But it has given me many insights and has generally been very intertesting and fullfilling. We think of us and our generation as the very definition of cutting-age, but in fact we are very similar to the people that lived through the millenia before us - a fact that becomes apparent when you open one of those ominous books of philosophy.

Originally posted by catwhoknows
reply to post by Romantic_Rebel

 

Hi, Rom,

I majored in Philosophy at university and I can tell you it is a very woolly subject.

It starts with this question - "If no-one is there to hear the tree fall, did the tree fall?"

And then you waffle on forever.

Couldn't we just go and look to see if the tree fell?

Trust me, philosophy is just an excuse for people to witter on and waffle on.

You should be a comedian because you are one of the funniest people I have ever ever seen or at least read anywhere. But I think the question is 'If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" but I like your question better... "If no-one is there to hear the tree fall, did the tree fall?" That is brilliant if no one is there to hear the tree fall, did it fall?....But your right these philosophers are just to lazy to go and see if the tree fell, they must subscribe to the peter griffin philosophy of "why"...Plus they just witter on and on it gets annoying.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


How can anyone successfully specialize in any specific field of study without understanding the fundamental questions of existence and the cosmos and their possible answers? You cannot learn philosophy but you can be provided with the means to think philosophically. Find a professor that is mostly rationally appealing but emotionally appealing as well. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a useful tool.