I am trying to understand where philosophy goes from here, from this place and time,
Dec 15, 2014. Often times to find out where you are, you need to know where you came from
and so with the idea of understanding where I have been, I am starting over in philosophy.
I have gone back to the basics and started with Greeks. I have plenty of books on Greek philosophy
and I got the 1st volume of the Routledge History of philosophy to begin the task of seeing where
I have been. I have both Plato and Aristotle books to read especially “The Republic” and Aristotle Ethics,
along with many of their books to understand where I have been.
At this point, I see philosophy has dead ended. It has no where to go right now. Philosophy
must renew itself to become relevant again. But the question becomes where is the next step?
Perhaps a look back can show me the way forward.
There is definitely places for philosophy to go, don’t give up. Since it seems like you’ve collected for yourself some valuable reading material I won’t recommend you any books though I can think of a few that might help to reinvigorate you.
The Greeks are a great place to go, so I applaud you for that choice. Because we are very divorced from the society of the acient Greeks it is easy to read them through a modern lense, just try to drop your preconceptions as much as possible… in fact you might consider doing that while philosophizing in general. Ask yourself more questions about what is good? What makes something good? Good for who, is it particular or universal? Why is it good? Do certain goods conflict with other goods? Can they be reconciled? How? and so forth…
Ask yourself how things are done, how can do things get done, what is needed to accomplish any given thing?
Think about the world in a completely natural state, no society, then imagine humans there, how would they live? What would need to be done? How could they form a society from scratch? Then compare it to the way society is, what was different? Why?
Ask yourself even, how do I live? How would I like to live? What would I need to do to live as I would like? and so forth…
Those are just some preliminary questions you might have already asked yourself and developed. You can even ask yourself, what is philosophy to you? Or what is wisdom? What do you think philosophy should accomplish? I would enjoy investigating this subject further with you.
Very interesting link about N. and Plato.
it comes back to some idea’s I have about this being a turning point
between the old, enlightenment and Christianity and all the old ism’s whose time
is up and the new. At this point, I cannot foresee the new but I am working on it.
I see us as the equivalent in Roman history as maybe toward the end of the 180’s- 200’s AD
and beginning the slide toward real problems. I hope we can shorten up the time period of
despair which was the entire century from 200 to 300 A.D. and renew enough not to fall into
the Dark ages. That is my hope, whether or not it is true, only time will tell.
Philosophical thought is based on the idea that some types of ideas are better than others.
It is common thought in form of good taste.
A lot of people are half philosophical, or less than half, but it is there.
Love of wisdom, we define wisdom as skillful and good thinking.
If the masses do not crave or demand wisdom (and they don’t) then philosophy will loose fame, not that it is dead, but that it is only for a lesser portion of humanity.
Once you have researched and understood the core principles of the Eastern philosophies, you can then move forward on the right track of what ‘philosophy-proper’ is meant to be within the meaning of human life.
In addition, philosophy-proper must blend with all other faculties of knowledge, especially, neuroscience and its various subs.
IMO, Western Philosophy is very systematic and thus critical to philosophy-proper as one of the horns provided it does not veered and focused too much on the incestuous academic mode.
As I look back into history I can see many turning points, do you mean a major turning point that would reshuffle the board, so to speak, like from the Roman empire to the dark ages, as you point out?
I see some pretty major differences in the world-situation from today and the Roman empire, many of them brought on by the growing dominance of technology. It even appears to me that nations could become less important in general in the future and technology take precedence as the dominant way of understanding and organizing our lives. In that sense a “global empire” would not need to arise from the supremacy of any central power but instead be bound together by the ubiquitous nature of technology. Think of how in any nation (or empire) there is a central point to which capital (we’ll say) flows, which keeps it strong and enables it to expand itself. As the importance of technology for our lives grows we will increasingly devote our efforts to maintaining it, in other words our efforts will be directed towards it… and then you take into account how important computers are for our lives, and our use of smaller technologies (iphones, televisions, soon wearable technology, etc.) or more basic, earlier ones (cars…) this not just in our free time, but think of office work, google glass even plans to have an app for surgeons to help them work, think of scientific progress in general and the mass amounts of technologies which go into that… and all this aside from the potential for any leaps in the field of artificial intelligence which definitely gets a lot of funding.
I’m not saying that technological dominance has already come, we still define ourselves in organic and pre-technological terms… Also not saying that machines would rule, more like engineers and technicians would increase in importance, to service the machines and system which holds together society in a scientific and methological manner. If it would be the case though, the only way to have a firm grasp on it philosophically would be to remain conscious of it, and not let the ubiquitousness of technology become so much second nature that it’s unconsidered. Eh, something to think about at least…
Which aspects of the dark ages did you see as potentially re-arising? Dogmatism? Fall of technology? Serfdom?
Another aspect of our present age which separates it from those of the past — I’m not sure what ‘social class’ others here are from, but previous historical epochs most of the philosophers came from some sort of nobility, and I think this had definite material impact on their influence. First they would have been able to mobilize more resources for a project if they desired, also they would have had closer first hand contact with other wealthy and influential people, and they shared a more common cultural tradition and values, whereas today it is frequently the case that we can be vastly different from our neighbours. We even hold allegiances to our jobs, frequently big corporations, because that is where we get our livelihood and so we are bound to classes that are still powerful, which effects what we would materially attempt in our lives…
This is kind of a random side note, do you think it is possible that the extremely wealthy classes today pass along a culture, perhaps even philosophy, that is not publishered in the mainstream at all? Even if they did, I suppose we would never know anyway. (I mean the people who this article would be referring to: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/22/us-offshore-wealth-idUSBRE86L03U20120722)
Are the Greeks the beginnings of philosophy? [or an over-elaborate end of it?]
I think real philosophy is only just beginning [e.g. QM science is fairly recent and on-going], people who give up maybe lack vision? Or got writers block - kinda? Emotionally drained? Want to run away from bad things like non-monologue debates, and conversation especially lol.
Computer Science. Get an MBA. Chinese. Read the Greeks in Greek. Compare them to the other Indo-European thought systems. Learn Indian logic. Rethink all of Western Philosophy through the lens of Evolutionary Psychology. Weird Realism. Find out what really happened to Pragmatism after WWII. Trace the hidden threads of the '68 movement. Have more sex and think about it a la Foucault. Get penetrated by a chick. Contemplate the Singularity vs the Zombie Apocalypse. Actually see if you can make a Hemlock Cocktail. Go run. Sit in horse for an hour. Kill something and write down your thoughts in the blood. Trace the roots of Japanese Anime to New Orleans. See who was cooler - Steve Jobs or Stewart Brand.
But, you’re probably an intellectual loser too stupid to learn a dead language. I mean you’re complaining about what to do next in philosophy? are you fucking kidding me? There’s millions of things to do. You don’t see them. Philosophy is not for you. You lack the intellectual bravado. Go drudge the rut, rut-drudger. That is what you were born for, drudging ruts. Perhaps you’ve the vision to see that, in front of you…
At the end of the valley of questions is the mountain of answers, upon which the spring of life feeds the ocean with wonder, above which the sun of enlightenment eternally reigns over the ever lasting mountain, shadowing the valley into eternal questioning.
What is there to seek after an end if not a beginning.
hermes the thrice great: But, you’re probably an intellectual loser too stupid to learn a dead language. I mean you’re complaining about what to do next in philosophy? are you fucking kidding me? There’s millions of things to do. You don’t see them. Philosophy is not for you. You lack the intellectual bravado. Go drudge the rut, rut-drudger. That is what you were born for, drudging ruts. Perhaps you’ve the vision to see that, in front of you…
K: apparently, reading comprehension is not really your strength. Notice, I said, “Philosophy has dead ended”
Not Kropotkin has dead ended, but Philosophy has dead ended and I was trying to figure out an way to
restart Philosophy. I was engaging philosophy to renew philosophy. By returning to the beginning, I might
be able to find a way to renew philosophy. I believe in big challenges, I rather fail reaching for the stars than
succeed in digging ditches. I tend to go for the big picture, I am not a detail kinda guy. You on the other hands,
seem to have issues. I really hope you work them out.