How to make a difference in an intellectual way? How to be a great philosopher? ( This question may seems stupid, but I somehow have this kind of dream, I feel only in this way I can give my life some meaning. But is this dream healthy or realistic?)
Since this is a philosophy forum, Does anyone here have similar dreams like mine? Is it a realistic dream?
And after all does this world really need philosophers?
Why our 21th century doesn’t produce great philosophers like the ages that comes before us?
Study; do a Masters and a PhD, then teach. You’ll have a captive audience.
There are many great philosophers out there. But much of the capacity of human thinking on Philosophy has been covered. It’s more about application, judgement and interpretation now.
Besides talent, one can be good philosopher by learning more and more, if he can keep his previously forms opinions aside, when it is required.
Secondly, a difference can be made in intellectual way by using one’s knowledge without any hesitation and fear when it is required.
Thirdly, we are not able to great produce philosophers now because philosophy has been lost its status of most knowledgeable and prestigious vertical, which it enjoyed all along the history of the mankind.
Kant and Hume were last in that league. After them, it is only Wittgenstein, who would be remembered after some centuries, no one else.
The best of the talent does not attract to it anymore. It goes either to science or management/business.
How can a person who love philosophy put himself in to the world of business/management? I find it so hard. I love philosophy and I like reading philosophy, but society is constantly pushing me towards the field of business/management. Currently the only job I can find is in the area of business and management, and I now work in a company that deal with international trade but I can’t put my whole mind into it… Do you have any advice/comment?
There is nothing wrong in involving with philosophy if one finds it interesting. But, unlike past times, one would not be able to survive purely on it in today’s circumstances, unless you are not very renowned one. And, every philosophy loving person cannot be a renowned one. Besides talent and knowledge, some things depends on circumstances too, and they are generally out on one’s control.
Thus, if you have proper backup and enough means in life to pursue philosophy only, you can surely go ahead with that. But, do not expect any return from that, at least materialistic. But, if that is not the case, go for your routine job. Do not forget philosophy but give it the time that you can spare. First make sure smooth running of your life for some years, then come back to philosophy so you would not have to care about anything else.
Lastly, you seems to be a young person to me. And, there is one more very subtle issue about philosophy which most of young people tend to miss. Philosophy is not like physics or chemistry, where one can learn all that what is said before and be a master.That does not happen in philosophy. Besides going through what others philosophers have been said, philosophy also requires a lot of different personal experiences in the life. There are some such things that no one can make you learn. You have to earn through your experiences in your life. Understanding comes with maturity. A same thing may be understood and interpreted differently by a 50 year old person than a 30 year old person.
Considering all this, my advice is to you get on with your job. First secure your future and make you comfortable on that front, then came back to philosophy as full time. Secondly, do not consider your management job as a burden, but as a lab of your future philosophical study. See closely and objectively how things tend to pan out in different streams of life. If you can remain vigilant during your job, merely those observations may give you such hind-sites, which no philosophy book would be able to teach you ever.
Philosophy does not live merely in the castle of books. It use to happen everywhere. Yes, one must have the eye for it.
I graduated last year and currently I work in a company as a low-level clerk. It is unlikely for me to save enough and retire then be a full-time philosopher in the future.
Yesterday I thought about my options, 1. return to school to study technologies and be a technician. I know I can find an easier job by studying them, but I don’t love them.
2. Go to study something related to philosophy, two areas interested me: Economics or Quantum Mechanics.
Zinnat, ask you a question, what’s the future of philosophy? People told me the current aim of philosophy is not to invent some new set of theoretical apparatus, it is merely to interpret old theories. I heard that in the area of Quantum Mechanics, there are likely some chances of major philosophical breakthrough , is it so?
I wish to study Quantum Mechanics or Economics and invented a brand new set of theoretical apparatus, but I 'm not sure whether I will find a job when I graduate.
I have this dream. I also have a dream that I can have everything I want in life (including your dream).
Perhaps a way to make this happen is to try to offer a new idea (This thread may be an example of one).
I am not convinced the 21st century does not produce great philosophers. I think that we may have MORE great philosophers, so their greatness may be less noticeable to us. I think that people might have a desire for their minds to be rapidly expanded, and this does not come as frequently as people might like.
One thing I have learned, and that I believe, is that everyone - and every thing, can be something new to teach you.
One way I would like to make a difference in an intellectual way, or in other words, teach people, is that there is ALWAYS a third option (it just might not be fully understood).
Another thing I’d like to teach people is that no two things are necessarily mutually exclusive.
This is a great thread
One thing I’ve learned from this thread is that I really like expressing my ideas, thoughts, opinions, to others - Thanks for that
2op. I take the view that learning what is taught, is simply reiterating what is already known. But you do need a knowledgeable basis to your thinking or it will just be whack.
There is so much we don’t know or understand about our experienced world, that unravelling it will form further knowledge and will change the world somewhat. Consider how different we are to a few thousand years ago, i expect at least the same amount to be learned, to wit people in a few thousand years will refer the difference.
I really don’t know why people think we know more or less everything, when we cannot define simple things like colour and sound as we experience it. What is worse is the kind of ignorance which assumes if something isn’t physical it isn’t real, when clearly physicality derives from the non-physical in it’s origins.
Welcome to the gilded age of hedonistic mass consumption, selfishness, and apathy.
We’re all far to busy to give a fuck about anything and all we want to do is hire full time ideologues to tell us happy things we want to hear regardless of the substance.
I think it is possible for a dedicated philosopher to become some kind of shaker and mover, and further, the history is full of them who have made great contributions, some with and some without merit. all You need is dedication, a cause and a belief that Your thinking can make a difference.
Do many people you know have relocated to another country? Usually which country do they go? India or some African countries? Yesterday I thought about the possibility of relocating to another country, and I realized for me it is not possible but in my country there are some places where it is sparsely populated and the cost of living is low so I can move there after saving enough…
Thank you for this piece of advice… I sometimes have a little problems of controlling my shipping urges…I don’t earn a lot, but I often spend some money on small items which are not necessary like soft drinks or snacks. although a single piece doesn’t cost much but they can be very expensive when added up.
I just searched a job website and find one piece of job information for people who major Quantum Mechanics, it is a slot in an observatory… Maybe a person in an observatory can have spare time writing philosophy, or maybe not… Yesterday I think about this over and over again, and I realize there are too many variables: I may not enter the right university and I may not meet the right tutor and I may not find a better job if I choose to go back to university to study economics or Quantum Mechanics… and yes, going to a university is very expensive…
Two years ago in a local college where I studied philosophy for the first time I had an ambition of becoming a philosopher… I worked quite hard for that direction, I read as many books as possible about philosophy and I devoted myself into it, I also have a desire to go to another country to study philosophy… Then I realize it is not possible for me to realize my dream… and I changed my job very often because I want to find a job that can allow me to philosophizing a little bit… and of course I didn’t find that kind of job.
Maybe philosophy, as some people say, is just a past time activity of the leisure class. Today an automobile factory offers me a job in their factory as a clerk, of course I 'm glad to be given a job, but to do my job well I need to study a lot about automobile manufacturing using the majority of my free time, that means I have to give up philosophy for some years, which I feel really bad about.
Several years ago I saw the wiki page of George Soros, it mentioned “In 1951 Soros earned a bachelor of science in philosophy and a PhD in philosophy in 1954, both from the London School of Economics.
…After graduating, Soros found it difficult to get work…then He planned to stay in a bank five years, enough time to save $500,000, after which he intended to return to England to study philosophy…”
But after he became a rich man and when he has the means to be a full time philosopher, he seems to abandoned his original dream.
The point I want to make using the example of George Soros is, if a person who loves philosophy have to do a job irrelevant to philosophy, then if that person is hardworking and after a long period of time, he or she managed to save enough money, then at that time the person, no longer young, may lost his or her interests in philosophy because of all those years’ grinding in his or her career.
Hello Amorphos, I do agree with you that to be a philosopher we need to have a knowledge base, but knowledge, or in other words, the various kind of diciplines always contain some value judgement, for example, in the study of traditional economics, where is the place of a tree, a river in the forest? they have no value.
Also, a philosopher is a human being, that means he or she has to find a way to feed him/herself, and this means very often he or she have to constrct his or her philosophy around his or her self-interests.
Knowledge isn’t just value judgements, because the info in our minds is derivative of worldly info & in some cases is verifiable [e.g. By machines]. I don’t understand what you mean about trees, they have value as a resource, but their location may vary?
Sure but feeding is but one aspect of what we do, and most of our knowledge and wisdom is based in other areas, or otherwise aren’t dependent upon needs. For example relativity is the same irrespective of our human needs, and per individual.
I don’t value this whole ‘value judgement system’, as it appears to pertain to the idea that knowledge is based in human thinking and not in pure information. it equally seems to be based in the idea that the mind is in a vat or that our thoughts are specific to the individual and not derivative [from the world]. if all this were true, then we’d never be able to correlate information, and hence we couldn’t understand each other or the world.
It seems that many people on this forum are retired. Sure, retired people have not much obligation and worries. And old ages is a period in life to think about philosophy.
By what means can a philosophy thinker support her or his philosophizing activity?
There are two philosophers that can be typical: Schopenhauer and Kant.
Schopenhauer inherited a sum from his father and this forturne enable him to be an independent funded philosopher.
Kant’s father is an ordinary working-class man, he studied hard and entered an university. Then he becomes a teacher in a university, and this enabled him to be a philosopher.
May I ask you a question:What do people here usually do to fund their philosophizing? retirement? tenure? saving? what are the pros and cons of those options?