I’m just wondering how we interact and relate to the people we encounter in our day to day lives. The majority of us, despite harsh remarks and criticisms, still enjoy coming to ilp.com because we know we can find other people here who can understand us, take time to hear our views and even occasionally, accept them. Now, I’m just curious to know how we deal with -other people- (insert favorite term) -who have no clue about philosophy-
Do you guys ever feel like you have to lower yourselves to a certain level for others to understand you?
I try to avoid people that I have to speak down to. it’s very annoying and disrespectful. However, I am horrible at small talk so it usually take a good bit before I will begin a converstaion with someone.
I had no idea this board existed until two days ago.
unfortunately i rarely get into a thought provoking conversation so philosophy never really effects me. when i do i tend to lay off and let other people speak their minds though a lot of the time i disagree. i wont start an arguement usually so i just shrug and say to each his own though ive heard plenty of logical reasons to lean a different way. so generally though i love philosophy i dont discuss it. i let people talk and absorb their thoughts while i dish out questions and direct the conversation basically just to get another opinion or hopefully an alternative way of looking at something. most of the time its something that ive thought of or wont take seriously but its still something to do.
what gets to me is when people are insulting just in general. i usually dissect the view and try to in my head argue why its wrong to be that way and it leads into some sort of philosophical experiment in my mind where i test possible reasonings. at that point im either too confused to go on or too annoyed to try to explain things… or the topic has moved on. explaining in a logical way why people should just shut up instead of being an ass sounds basic but its really complicated for me. its something ive been thinking about a lot lately which ill make a thread about. its a nice coincidence that this thread is somewhat closely related to whats been getting me down lately.
I find that it is much more difficult to talk about other kind of specific subjects such as physics and maths with others compared to philosophy. everybody has a view on ethics and even if they don’t they know how to think and they’ll always tell you something. it is much harder to find a friend who actually enjoys talking about maths in leisure.
Thanks guys!
I see a tiny bit of myself in each of your responses:
Tenente Fascista wrote
cba1067950 wrote:
yan Wrote:
so tenente, what’s fascism doing these days? how are things going?
yeah, let’s have a fascism update.
but anyway, i liked what cba1067950 was saying… just being sort of passive in everyday conversations and letting people do the thinking/talking. but when you do say something, really keep it limited and SHORT. people just can’t take in a full assault of philosophy without being “ready for it”…so its useless to try to “teach people” the wisdom you’ve gathered. if there is a way, it would be asking questions rather than stating opinions or even facts.
now i’m wondering, what’s been gettin’ you down, cba1067950? i love talking about these topics related to communication.
I don’t think it’s anything about being philosophical, just take a look around you and you’ll see that the majority of people don’t tend to live at a deep level (as some may say). Though i don’t live at a deep level, i don’t believe in god and nor do i think my existence, or even the existence of everything around me has any paticular meaning. But not many people will actually bother to look up at the sky just once and really wonder, many are iggnorant towards things, ‘just live life cos’ you could die at any moment’. My mere existence of actually being here is never going to effect the universe or nature’s cycle but like i say, not many think like that. Many people who don’t really like to think about the life/death actually believe in some kind of higer entity, but that’s because their unsure and they just have an iggnorant view to it, i remember somebody once said to me. ‘i believe in god because he created everything and he loves us’. Just shows the kind of people amongst us, but i dare not make fun of others because of it, cos to them people who are not so ‘philosophical’ look at ‘us’ and think we’r heading for complete insanity, and to a certain degree, we are.
But really, we’r all freaks of nature anyway, we’r just an intelligent form…on this side of the universe 
ive got an incredibly large problem dealing with people in general. its rather complicated. i can understand that my past experiences would make me shy and timid or just all together not a people person but that doesnt really offer any consolation. it’s like theres a gaping emptyness. ive never had this before. generally if theres a problem with myself i know what to do to go about fixing it but socially im lacking and i have no answers. there just seems to be no way that i can enjoy the company of people. before i even get with them im thinking of ways to leave regardless of whether im comfortable with them or not. its all just depressing because when im enjoying someone i can ignore it but once im conscious of the thoughts they take over.
i had a discussion with an online friend about this and she suggested that maybe i enjoy being problematic because as she observed i tend to be a lot. that makes sense but again no consolation. its like i dont want an understanding it just leaves me feeling empty. yet thats the only thing i know to do to cope with it.
Studying a very techincal disaplin does exaserbate the problem of indeterminacy of translation. It is easer on the Ethist, well at least some Ethist, the Kantian is kinda screwed when attemting to have a normal communication- at least the hardcore Kantophiliac of our department. Just imagen what it would be like to be a philosopher of math, what are there half a dozen people who you can legitimately talk to?
Anywho, my tendancy for circumventing this problem is to rely increasingly on non-verbal conversation. One might be amazeing the level of information that can be passed if you can lock someone in eyecontact. And most mundane task can be taken care of with a simple handwave. So yeah, im pretty quite unless you provoce me into recite Hume complete with commentary. Although, sometimes people are intersed in playing a game of “What am I with me?” where I’ll catagorise them on there stance on some issue with a serise of questions.
[size=150]Birds of a feather…flock together[/size]
I’m not asserting myself rather inquiring, could all the social problems philosophers battle with everyday be caused by the fact that they are just not hanging around other philosophers?
If I declared that: As long as philosophers spend time around non-philosophers, there will always be friction.
Would that be a valid statement?
Open to criticisms and remarks.
I agree with Carl Sagan: Understanding is joyous.
But with the amendment that shared understanding is even more joyous.
Which is why I try to pursue truth (omit error) for mutual benefit with everyone I meet, and I suffer through the social consequences, which are complex and numerous. I chalk it up to a good cause though.
Academic philosophers, by nature, are born with extra curiousity, but also an extra desire to be right, and to appear smart or in the know, for personal, emotional reasons – otherwise, suffering through the rigor, bureacracy and drudgery of academic life would never be plausible. Which is why, I believe, that most work that pursues truth, also suffers from being prolix and pedantic, with the writer’s obvious affinity for his/her own verbosity, and obvious insecurities. Rare to find one that says it simply.
In short, philosophers are usually insufferable. Just goes with territory. I think we can all benefit from being warmer, calmer, quicker and humbler in all of our discourses with non-philosophers and philosophers alike.
youre definately right. the whole idea of opposites attracting is totally ridiculous. i would prefer a philosopher with somewhat different beliefs than someone who spends absolutley no time thinking about their beliefs at all (say a knowledgeable theist vs a knowledgeable athiest). id view this as a character flaw though. being unable to deal with others socially because they arent as inquisitive about things. it seems a bit shallow and haughty.
i like this but im never quite sure what to consider truth. sharing your “truth” might turn out to be a very negative social consequence.
I suppose it the exception to gamer’s rule, but every Philosophy prof in the department that i have met has been personable, sincere, and incredibly easy to approach about anything. Even some of my friends, English majors god bless em, when not ducking and running out of the English dept.'s office have commented on how laid back the philosophy professors are. that said, maybe in academic circles they are all blood crazed hooligans… but they treat the students very kindly (maybe because there are precious few Philosophy majors around in comparison) Or maybe that is just the undergrad world, the higher you go the more petty it gets?
I never share truth, but I do, of course, PURSUE it like a mofo. Whenever I do this, I attempt to omit error. This begets strife among the common folk who cling to mass-produced blankets of dogmatic drivel. But my intentions are pure, I promise. (The fools! F-Them FFFFF-Them!) Ahem. Anyway. Yes, most philosophers are nicer and mellower, but it’s because they’re so smart, and who wouldn’t want to use their smartness to manufacture a veneer of coolness, as in “Dude, that guy Trent was so cool.” Usually cool substitutes relativism, in my experience. So I think philosophers are misunderstood on the whole. And finally, try reading philosophy sometime. It’s pretty insanely dry, full of pomp and circumstance. Just say it…before the flame goes out for good. Kids today don’t know who Sigmund The Sea Monster is. Do you think kids tomorrow will know what Plato thought – or will they be doomed to ignorance because Dr SHmickstein was too damned innebriated with his own verbosity to make it interesting, and thus help it survive…same goes for all his sniveling students named roy…thin dark men with backpacks who eat tofu, but then eat full-fat marinara…just not knowing that it’s wrong.