RE: Generally speaking, is philosophy a worthwhile subject of study?
February 21, 2022 at 5:01 pm
(This post was last modified: February 21, 2022 at 5:02 pm by Belacqua.)
(February 21, 2022 at 4:34 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: I think one problem we're having is giving a clear definition of philosophy for someone to criticize.
One way we might approach it is to go back to first principles: philosophy is the love of wisdom, as the etymology suggests. So there's the love part and the wisdom part.
Love means that you do it for love. If you love your girlfriend for utilitarian gain, you don't really love her. Wisdom can be loved for its own sake, as something good, in an autotelic way. I suspect this would have some positive effects, too -- like maybe better life choices. But maybe not. (Searle turned out to be a #MeToo creep, and of course Heidegger was a Nazi.) Even if one is mistaken about other things, or even if one has psychological issues that lead one astray, loving what's good, including beauty, justice, and high-level thinking, is a good thing to do.
Wisdom means something different from knowledge. Which is what differentiates this from science. Wisdom comes of understanding in a non-data-driven way. What am I like? What should we do? If these are the things we value, then science is really only good if it serves philosophy. (And if it doesn't serve to help us know how we ought to live, then we get to a situation as we have today: science is applied by selfish immoral people and ends up crippling the environment.)
Aristotle, in the Nicomachean Ethics, argues that people are unique in their ability to reason. He concluded from this that a major part of a good life would be exercising that reason, using it simply because it is so intrinsically a part of what we are. To neglect it would be wasting our endowment.
The utilitarian philosophy, asserting that everything we do must be practical, fits nicely with a capitalist philosophy, where we are defined by our jobs. But what do we do when we're not working? Sit on the sofa and consume Disney products? Thinking seriously (i.e. doing philosophy) is its own reward.