Philosophy to a purpose

Philosophy is meant to bear fruit, it is not meant to rest infertile is the soul of man or to produce stillborns. It is philosophy that produced the modern world, that moved us into the stars through the labors of science. It is philosophy that prepares each age for the next, that teaches each moves mankind from the beastlike to the godlike, from sensation through speculation, and to action. Without action philosophy is impotent. Has the mother of all knowledge become sterile? What will be the next move of philosophy to a purpose?

JVS

the study of philosophy is a journey

a journey of the ever growing sophistication of man, ideas and language

only by studying it’s history do you see how ideas develop and are refined.

philosophy will continue to forge this path, and students of philosophy will continue to open their eyes through this study.

that is purpose enough.

I have said the same to myself a great deal, without the same sophistication. Contributions can be made to philosophy by people’s writing and inaction. But I’m certain that I’m generally a terrible philosopher if my practice doesn’t suit my beliefs.

Unfortunately, this attitude has lead me to a criminal record. But it’s not a huge regret. I’m happy to soullessly preach now. I hope it has meaning.

But it is important for us to remember what jeremiah is onto. Plot this course of human knowledge . . .

Early writing- “Everything we know exists because this god did this big thing and all this stuff happened and I don’t have to justify any of it because I’m special”

Socrates- Humble thinker, “Stingfly” of everyone in Athens by talking them into self-contradiction, Soldier, rebel against the dictated beliefs, peer to young learners, victim of the distaste for the “evil” “anarchists” or “atheists.”

Plato- Catalyzed Socrates to a school and started a line of revolutionary thinkers.

Aristotle- Student to Plato and started to map the nature of the universe by measurement and pure nondictated justification.

(I forget)- Learning from Aristotle’s work (and others descending from his work) and inventing calculus.

Science today- Planting a space shuttle on the moon by the use of calculus and engineering, from the knowledge of early inspections.

Philosophy itself is something detached from humanity, by the pure pursuit of wisdom. Philosophy within humanity has been the impact by the figures that refuse to blindly obey; and justify as much as possible by pure reason. Aristotle wisely termed the sciences as a useful form of philosophy, not as a detachment from philosophy.

It was philosophy, not science, which escaped the wrath of oppressive rule even when the ruler’s might became more sophisticated than human numbers. It will be philosophy, not science, which will calculate our exposure of tyrants and our elimination of tyranny where tyrants use incredible scientiffic discoveries to control and oppress the populace.

If we encounter an alien intelligent race, we should surely judge them by their philosophy more than their science. Their power to reason their actions, as well as control nature.

Yes, philosophy does have a purpose. That purpose is to provide man with an integrated view of existence. How a man views existence and himself, will determine his course of action and the course of his life. The course of men’s lives determine the course history. It is philosophy that controls the fate of mankind.

There are five branches of philosophy, each one dealing with a different aspect of man’s existence.

Metaphysics: deals with the nature of reality
epistemology: deals with the nature of knowledge
ethics: the science that provides man with a code that guides his choices
politics: the science that deals with social systems
art: deals with the needs and refueling of mans consciousness

there is more detail of each one of these at importanceofphilosophy.com

gos.sbc.edu/r/rand.html Contains the speech “Philosophy: Who Needs It?”

Philosophy is the love of wisdom, but what is wisdom? Is wisdom mere knowledge or is it something more? I consider wisdom to be the right use of knowledge. After all, the modern world seems to be replete with learned fools does it not? Knowledge alone can be a dangerous thing in the mind of the imprudent, even as a gun in the hand of the immature. I, for my part, have begun to move past the ancient arguments over knowledge, how it is gained, and how it may be shown to be true or false; at this point I consider such debates settled and have retired Hume, Berkeley, and Kant.
The more pressing issue, the one of far more import in the twenty first century is how our knowledge ought to be used. Here one crosses the line form epistemology to ethics. What are ‘The Good’ and ‘The Just’ as it relates to knowledge? What is the right use of knowledge?

Here the purpose of philosophy becomes not just the advancement of learning, but the advancement of man as a species. Here philosophy calls us to penetrate to the heart of that love and to let wisdom herself guide us by the hand from darkness into light. This is more than mere learning. This is more than mere knowledge. This is the ascension of man to the right hand of God. This is man becoming reconciled to God, to himself, to his fellow man, and to nature after ages of alienation. With the embrace of wisdom ends the theocide, suicide, homicide, and ecocide that such alienation leads to. Every form of enlightening inspiration, every scientific discovery, and technological advancement ought to be used to advance abundant life, to free man from his fetters and nature from its toil, to replace the pangs of death with the pangs of birth in seed, and beast, and man.

JVS

It was Marx who wrote that so far philosophers have only succeeded in interpreting the world in various ways…

…when by far the more important idea was to change it!

Change what? The world as it is or as you interpret it? (This is Heidegger’s response to Marx’ statement.)

EDIT: Is the idea that the world needs changing not already interpretation, rather than a fact?

Philosophy means love of wisdom in the sense of knowledge. How to rightly use this knowledge is also a kind of knowledge.

The Nietzschean phrase for this is “right making based on right knowing”. Nietzsche thought the advancement of man as a species depended on the advancement of its highest exemplars (i.e., human excellence).

I can see the merit in such an idea, as these exemplars would create ever higher benchmarks for greatness by widen the bell curve and hence pull mankind to greater heights. Ideally this process should take place individually and collectively, with each individual ever working to overcome themselves, their own limitations, which, when done by the ‘exemplars’, would lead to the overcoming of the current limitations of man as a species.

JVS

I have always taken philosophy to be the quest for truth, the proper way in which to view the world, interact with other beings and ultimatly progress. Granted my flirtations with philosophy have lead me to disregard the idea of truth or ideals in which to live by I feel the merit of trying to understand what is true within our reality is the key of philosophy.

Progress towards what? And should we arrive, what then?

We may be travelling, but there is no destination. At the end of our travels is an end, but not a goal.

There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 1891

Someday humans might transport themselves across the Universe just to grab lunch. We might extend our individual lives to a thousand years. Each of us may one day own a phalanx of personal robotic slaves.

All of which we will take for granted.

What will matter most to us then are the things that matter most to us now; love, honor, beauty, passion and compassion.

Pax,
Michael

Great point! And I think it’s important here to remember that under a false consciousness, the two are actually the same. It’s only hubris, or more precisely, bad faith, that even allows us to connect ‘the world as it actually is’ to ‘the world as i interpret it to be.’ As perfect as that would be, changing reality doesn’t just amount to changing more or less conscious interpretations – it amounts to changing more or less unconscious desires.

We select those interpretations which fit with our desires. So what do we desire? This is the real question: what kind of world do we want? Before it could become what we desire, we’d have to first figure out what it is that we desire.

Unfortunately, what we seem trained to desire is power! We have to relinquish our lust for control, both over interpretation and reality. Not that we have to adjust, or become normal! Becoming normal is overcoming the power of desire, not overcoming the desire for power.

I think philosophy leads to ourselves eventually

There is no all encompassing purpose.

Purpose is what individuals make for themselves which can also be called an interpretation of meaning.

Progress towards godhood, and then, creation/re-creation.

JVS

God is a fag.

Thanks for your reply, jeremiah175,

If your god is both omnipotent and omniscient, he’s obviously not going to let me anywhere near him. For He would already know that I’d kill Him if I ever had the opportunity. I’d strangle Him until his All-Seeing eyes popped out of his All-Knowing head. If the evil bastard does exist, then He already knows why I’d break out of Hell itself to come and get Him.

Kind regards,
Michael

Well, Supposing god does exist and it being his nature to be perfect both rationally and morally. If morality does exist along with god and he truely “knows” what is good and it is necessary that god acts in such a manner. Is it not the case that it is you that are in the wrong? You admitted in another thread that it was the case that morality was a fiction and so is it not true that you would be violating a law which was truely good for man?

One might very well argue that the end of man is happiness.

If this is not so, why then does man act? What moves him? There is a destination and end to which we set up all our laws, the constitution of our states, the ethics of our lives, the structure of our familial units, it is the aim of happiness. If we arrive at that end we will continue to do what promotes that end. Happiness is not static as character is always effected by our thoughts and actions. The “progress” is the cultivation of character, the “aim” is happiness.

I completely agree. I think it reflects something essential in our very being. Oops did I let that out?

By the way, just listened to a beautiful little lecture.

http://www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures/20050223robinsonTAPE350K.asx