(September 27, 2014 at 11:09 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: In no way did I mean to imply that I devalue philosophy in general. I'm simply wondering if certain philosophical issues that seem reoccurring throughout history and more importantly, quite often have led or continue to lead to vexing disagreement, might really be considered a huge waste of time and thought; and in avoiding such buzzkills in the future, we might determine the meaningfulness of the idea at hand by its usefulness.
I think those "certain recurring philosophical issues" can be broadly divided into two categories.
One would be genuine thought problems that require rigorous examinations and broadened ways of thinking that could result in novel applications. Take Zeno's paradox for example - if you look towards the end of the link you'll find its relevance to physics and mathematics.
Other category, like finding reasons to believe in god, would be nothing more than mental masturbation. These issues keep popping up because people want to use them to justify their preconceived ideas even if they have been shown to be fallacious.
