Philosophy

[Avenged]

I've been thinkin' lots about Philosophy and it's evolution today; mainly about how it parallels the evolution of humans as a whole.

Philosophers used to be called Thinkers, scientists, etc. This was, at the time, because the questions they were faced with were many of the basics of life: How does the world work? Why does (This, that, the other) happen? And this was the earliest form of science.

Now, we call people with philosophical thoughts free speakers, or even rebels in a way. This is because the people with what we now dictate as "Philosophical" ideas are those ideas that are contrary to those presented before them. they're the people that have a box put in front of them and spend their time turning it into a circle and coloring it green, rather than the early philosophers saying "What is a box?"

I dunno. Been thinkin' a lot lately. I don't know where this fits by the way. Just thought i'd put somethin' thought provoking out there(;

[Antisthenes]

I've been thinkin' lots about Philosophy and it's evolution today; mainly about how it parallels the evolution of humans as a whole.

Philosophers used to be called Thinkers, scientists, etc. This was, at the time, because the questions they were faced with were many of the basics of life: How does the world work? Why does (This, that, the other) happen? And this was the earliest form of science.

Now, we call people with philosophical thoughts free speakers, or even rebels in a way. This is because the people with what we now dictate as "Philosophical" ideas are those ideas that are contrary to those presented before them. they're the people that have a box put in front of them and spend their time turning it into a circle and coloring it green, rather than the early philosophers saying "What is a box?"

I dunno. Been thinkin' a lot lately. I don't know where this fits by the way. Just thought i'd put somethin' thought provoking out there(;

So then, are you proposing that philosophers today ought conform more to the manner of ancient philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, arguing not about how something must be one way or another, but instead arguing about what that (one way or another) is?

For example of what I mean:

Plato believed in his theory of forms, being, that truth is not a part of the world we experience, but instead it is only found in the realm of the forms
(an ethereal region where all perfect things lay, that the physical world we inhabit takes a part in, but is not the same as. Perfect things included all of the world's idealized parts that we seem to never see, such as a perfectly cut square or cube or triangle. Triangles/cubes/squares we see in the world were said to take part in the perfect forms of them, but not be the same as them.).

Whereas Aristotle believed in the precursors of the scientific method, being, that truth is only able to be found by examination of the physical world that we inhabit, and not some realm of the forms, as Plato suggested.

Googling "Aristotle and Plato" and checking Google Images shows a classic picture depicting Plato (left) and Aristotle (right). Plato's hand that is not carrying the book is pointing to the sky, indicating his belief in the theory of the forms being the only place of truth, where Aristotle gestures to the ground, indicating his belief in the physical world is the only place of truth.

Would that type of philosopher be better in your mind, than ones today?

[Avenged]

I wasn't arguing that one was better per say, more than it's interesting how they've evolved, as have we.

I like modern philosophy personally. it's quite interesting, and easier to connect to, obviously.

[TigerBoy]

Now, we call people with philosophical thoughts free speakers, or even rebels in a way.
Socrates was considered such a rebel that he was sentenced to death for it: freedom of thought and expression can often threaten the establishment and seem rebellious, this is nothing new.


Science needs philosophy and imagination in order to stimulate the more abstract areas of research by providing hypotheses that can then be approached with scientific method. Hawkings and many other notable scientists work in this way. Science and philosophy are still tightly linked. I read recently that Cern had a conference in the wake of the Higgs boson discovery that invited theologians and philosophers for exactly this reason.

[Magus]

Man, I am too stupid to be a part of the conversation.

[Antisthenes]

Man, I am too stupid to be a part of the conversation.

This is false, because you're here doing so now. Hello.