> 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.
It's that "rather than" which prompts me to label philosophy the art of
asking the wrong questions. If a certain Greek philosopher had used an
empirical method (counting his wife's teeth) instead of simply asserting
that women have a different number of teeth than men, I think he would have
done better.
> The concepts of logic, proof methods, debate, critical thinking,
> rationalism, and even scientific method and peer review are all
> philosophies for finding the truth.
Well, they're *methods* for finding the truth, but since they don't all use
logical reasoning *rather than* empirical methods, they can't (by the
dictionary definition) *all* be called philosophies. <note to self: add "the
truth" to list of useless hypotheses>
> 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.
I think Law uses empirical evidence when it comes to the real nitty gritty
of court cases, and the body of litigation is based on precedent, not
philosophy. Ethics is just a formal term for moralism in practice.
Professionalism includes philosophy insofar as the profession in question is
philosophical rather than real. Rules of conduct are sorted out by the
device of conducting business and observing the results, then making rules
which allow productive conduct of business to continue and to thrive. To the
extent contracts, business, monetary systems, economics, political systems
corporate organization, and even freedom itself rely on philosophy rather
than empirical methods and science, it seems to me they fail.
> 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.
I didn't say these were "bogus" I wrote that philosophy is the art of asking
the wrong questions. In this respect, you are a champion philosopher, since
you have asked a wrong question ("Are all the concepts bogus?") which moves
off in an entirely contrary direction from my assertion about philosophy. I
think philosophy asks the wrong questions because, although philosophers may
know some practical and right questions (those that can be decisively
answered via empirical methods), finding things out that way is too much
like work, it's often boring and tedious, and if the work's done right, it
puts and end to the question. Without unanswerable questions, philosophy
dies. So, philosophy wants to ask why, instead of how, what, where, when.
The best philosophical questions are those that no philosopher has answered
(or can answer) conclusively. That gives philosophers their best reason to
go on philosophizing instead of doing some real work. I love to
philosophize, and have wasted many hours doing so. Philosophy provides a
primary vehicle for some folks to socialize. The Art of Asking the Wrong
Questions is the oldest and greatest game humans have invented.
Philosophy is to knowledge as masturbation is to sex. They both feel good,
and everyone does it, but it doesn't get the real job done.
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
3M TA3
=====================
Useless hypotheses: consciousness, phlogiston, vitalism, mind, free will
" ...and the business of philosophy is to show that we are not fools for
doing what we want to do."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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