that we have plenty of dilettantes around here is no mystery…
so, what exactly is a dilettante?
a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without
any real commitment or knowledge…these people are a dime a dozen
here at ILP…they post like mad without any real commitment to
philosophy or without any real knowledge about philosophy…
for example, what are the two maxims of Socrates?
one is to “know thyself”
and the second…
“the unexamined life isn’t worth living”
then 2000 years later, Kant came along with his questions,
“what am I to do?” “What should I hope for?” “What can I know?”
I have expanded those questions “What should I/we hope for?”
to include not only the individual, but to include the collective,
for I hold that every question of existence that is meant to be for the “One” “individual”
is also for the “Many” or the “collective”…
I have also ask such questions as “what should we spend our energy on?”
and “What values should we hold?” as important questions of existence…
and perhaps the most important question,
“Does existence have a point, meaning to it?”
these are the questions of existence that we should, must engage with…
but think about it, who actually practices these questions of existence on ILP?
as to the first questions, “to know thyself” and “the unexamined life isn’t worth living”
I would say that IAM actually engages the most in these two questions…
he knows himself, perhaps better then anyone else at ILP know themselves…
and he is always trying to get people to engage in the question of examination
of one’s life and one’s beliefs…
and rare is someone who does so… most around here lack courage to explore
what it means to examine oneself, to know oneself…
the dilettantes around here are about attacking someone and trying to score “points” instead
of an engagement with who they are and to have an engagement with an examination
of their beliefs…
I call the kids around here dilettantes because they don’t engage in the questions
of Socrates nor do they explore the Kantian questions of existence…
and they certainly don’t explore the questions raised by Kropotkin,
“What values should I hold” for example or “what is my relationship with
the society or the state?”…
in fact, the kids around here don’t even ask questions about what it means
to be human… for to ask and answer such a questions requires a real
commitment to philosophy or some knowledge to the points raised by
the question…
they lack the courage and intelligence to commit to such questions
of existence and they would rather pretend to look smart then actually
engage in substantive discussion of what it means to be human…or what
we are to do as human beings…or how do we raise ourselves from being
animals to becoming animal/human to becoming fully human…
I read philosophers like Heidegger in some attempt to engage with
them in such questions as “what does it mean to be human?”
(I find I am getting fed up with Heidegger and his “answers”…
I am halfway through and I am not impressed… and I am seriously
ready to give up unless some real engagement begins with the
questions of who we are and what does that mean begin to
appear in Heidegger)…
anyway back at the ranch… ask yourself, are you here to just make points
and to look smart, build up the ego, or, or are you here to get serious
about what it means to be human and to engage in the questions that should
haunt you morning, noon and night… “what am I to do?” “what values should I hold?”
“what does it mean to be human?” if these questions don’ keep you at at night,
perhaps, perhaps you are just a dilettante… playing at being a philosopher
instead of a real engagement with philosophy…
I hate going to work and not just because it is work, no, I hate it
because it takes me away from my seeking what it means to be human
and what values should I hold?..
what is your level of commitment to philosophy?
if philosophical questions aren’t on your mind every single waking moment,
then perhaps you are just a dilettante…
playing at being philosophical, not really being philosophical…
Kropotkin
