"J. R. Molloy" <jr@shasta.com> wrote,
> > Sometimes the important part of progress is not coming up with the
>> right answer, but coming up with the right question!
>> --
>> Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>
>
>That's the best reason I've seen here for not contaminating technology with
>the P thing.
>Philosophy is the art of asking the wrong questions.
This is an amusing joke, but not an accurate definition. If you look
up philosophy in the dictionary, you will find that it is the inquiry
into the nature of things based on logical reasoning rather than
empirical methods.
The concepts of logic, proof methods, debate, critical thinking,
rationalism, and even scientific method and peer review are all
philosophies for finding the truth. Law, ethics, professionalism,
rules of conduct, contracts, business, monetary systems, economics,
political systems, corporate organization, and even freedom itself
are philosophical systems for explaining different areas of our lives.
Even transhumanism, extropianism, the extropian principals,
immortalism, and non-mysticism discussed on this list are examples of
philosophy. Are all the concepts bogus? I think not. I think they
are examples of good philosophy.
-- Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:39 MDT