Summary by Wayne
In our group we started of by looking at the translation of philosophy: love of wisdom. Wisdom, it seems, is a very difficult subject to categorize Our group spent maybe 30 minutes trying to figure out a way to determine what wisdom means, only to conclude that it means many different things all at once; it can mean street-smarts (or "common" sense), it can mean that practical advice and knowledge an older person can give, and it can also be seen as the ability to be successful in achieving wealth.
So after finally realizing that trying to define wisdom would be a circular process, our group moved onto what use is philosophy, which, sadly, we didn't get to explore fully, but I shall outline what little we did. Some of us felt that the study of philosophy is a pointless area (the full discussion of which we weren't able to enjoy), while others- me included- saw philosophy not as an actual subject, like history or math, but as an art-form, similar to poetry or music.
I am going to post my personal views of what philosophy is below in the comments.
I was one in our group that felt that philosophy, in a way, was pointless. It is not that i do not like philosophy, it is simply because I feel that endless debating over something that neither side could ever have concrete evidence for is pointless, similar to a gerbil running on a wheel for hours only to be left in the same place.
ReplyDeleteWe defined philosophy as being the love of wisdom! It is simply asking "why". Philosophy is questioning something. Wanting to know how and why something exists and functions the way that it does. Philosophy is never wrong. Everyones philosophy is and can be very different. All philosophy is controversial and can be seen from many points of view depending on the person. I is in a sense just an opinion about something.
ReplyDeleteWayne I agree with you Philosophy is more of an art, rather than a factual subject, like math/English, etc.. Eli also made a point that it is a never ending debate, which I completely agree with too. But maybe Philosophy is a subject to make individuals like ourselves more open-minded is what I believe philosophy is.
ReplyDeleteI find philosophy to be more about the act of thinking and examining the world around us than finding the answers to it. About asking questions, no so much finding the answers to them as most of the questions that are presented are subjective in nature and therefore have no one answer.
ReplyDeleteIn this way I believe philosophy is very important as it makes us question the world around us. When it is so common for people to believe and accept truths without first examining them, philosophy can be a useful tool in helping people examine things and escape this bad habit.
I am a very black and white person, I want one correct answer; yet, I feel that philosophy may be endless, but the journey of getting there is extremely satisfying. I guess what I mean is that everyone has their own philosophy. You got to where you stand in opinion by questioning things. Philosophy is about questioning and forming an opinion. Philosophy might go more in-depth than a individual philosophy, but I agree with Jacob that it is a "useful tool."
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