Yes I think its important. with out the study of ethics, metaphysics, theories of knowledge and the like people as a whole would be ignorant of other groups of people's ideals.
Also Philosophy is adaptable to anyone's beliefs and ideals. For instance think of the overly religious Baptist (I know it hurts, but follow me a sec) he or she thinks that they are right, theirs is the only life. They apply religion to their every day life. The Baptist philosophy of fear your God makes them as they are. While someone like a Budist does not see the world as that. They see the world as a place of beauty and peace. Through meditation one can reach Nirvana, and be one with the universe.
By studying ethics we learn what is and is not right, or in some cases the loop holes to these. Since right and wrong are relative in some cases, a person can compare and contrast what he or she believes and what others believe. Again take different religious orders and how they react to certain acts. Ethics is personal as well as societal. People tend to make their own ethics based on what they see, read and hear. With the study of ethics we as people have a greater understanding of what people as a whole consider ethical. Remember what Smecker said in Boondock Saints, "Its ethics, what these men do I believe is right, and necessary, the deliver what the law cannot." (thats a rough paraphrase since the IMDB failed me) Ethics are different from person to person and situation to situation. Mind you that isnt 100% but it is true enough.
With out the study of metaphysics what would be know? The problem with this study is how much is concrete and how much is theory? Though it is better to have theories than nothing. Depending on whom you read and what they are talking about is what you get. Some people allow their beliefs to get in their way of their theories. Remember our Paranormal Psych class? He particularly did not seem to care about much else other than aliens. Which is why we spent so much time going on about them at the end. Maybe thats his area of expertise, if so why not rename the class Area 51, 52, and Roswell?
Also if we didnt have philosophy you would a completely made up degree.
Id go more into this here, but I have to actually try to accomplish something at work...
simply because it is the basis for all modern social science. where would we be without Marx, Foucault, Derrida, and the list goes on and on. yes, they may be diametrically opposed in their views, but the modern social sciences and therefore, ALL activist/liberationist movements would either be at a complete ideological standstill, or simple would not exist in the first place.
Philosophy is important, but I feel philosophy as it was in the times of yore is antiquated and outmoded. Once the realm of philosophy, cosmic forces and human nature are now the realms of physics and biology. One by one, those things that we once speculated on, "philsophized", became more and more clear because we observed and uncovered fact after fact, creating clearer images of those things. We no longer need to speculate as to what a heart does, why we need blood to live, air to breathe, or a spleen. We no longer need to philosophize about why sickness spreads, or why leprosy afflicts the young; we can observe a simple struggle of a germ or parasite fighting for its own life in any host it finds.
When we talk about philosophy, what it WAS to us ages ago was the continued thinking about all things, their relationships, and their functions. Now, it serves more as a means of systematically organizing concepts into formulas for explaining vast quantities of information. Essentially, philosophy has failed to "explain" anything, from physics, to human nature, or morality even, and is better off constructing conceptual frameworks for labeling relationships between those things.
I know redblessing would have my hide for slandering philosophy in this way, but I wouldn't be so quick to assume this of philosophy if I hadn't studied it myself. There isn't anything left for philosophy to "explain" or investigate. Ethics is ultimately a function of altruism, which is ultimately a function of animal societal structure (and if ants can have that, then there's not much to philosophize about there, it's just a function of the system) and if it weren't for pain and altruism, we wouldn't even be bothered to worry about ethics, so all that's left for philosophy is to label and systematize those concepts and ideas into an understandable framework.
Important? I'd say it's invaluable and without it we are nothing more than grunting, naked apes with iPods. With it, we can formulate a theory for interaction.
Which, is essentially to say that for me, philosophy is a name for a scientific method of organizing societal processes into a logical framework.
And I think everyone knows by now that I don't believe in metaphysics, and even if I did, philosophy can't explain anything there either, because philosophy still deals with our understanding and comprehension of those things that we can observe or infer, (and we infer based on those things we observe) and with metaphyisics, you can do neither, which leaves it outside both the realms of science and traditional philosophy.
At least, that's the set of assumptions I operate under, and really don't hold very dear. I think it would be a lot cooler to have something to do after I die.
Good? That's a lot more debatable, in my mind. We keep running into this problem, as a race. Marx pointed it out, for economics, and various science fiction writers have pointed it out, for the sciences: We're munchkins. One of the most natural mental processes for humans to engage in is the analysis of how to break a system in our own favor. And then we learn from one another with words that don't convey the total context of the forebear's learning...The result is that people learn to break a system without the understanding that the first munchkin had: the understanding that it isn't very nice. Do you know, there are thousands of people in America who are engaged in the sale of a business-in-a-box, a product that literally has negative value, and a product the sale of which does nothing for society at large, and those thousands believe they are helping people. The folks at the top of the pyramid scheme, and several of the people on the way down, understand that what they are doing is wrong. But not everybody. Philosophy, as a mode of study, has been abused in the same way. Philosophy begat sociology begat social engineering. Philosophy begat psychology begat subliminal advertising. Hah. How backwards. It's not so often the father is tried for the debts and crimes of his sons; usually it's all "sins of the father."
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-08-25 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-25 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-25 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-25 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-25 03:54 pm (UTC)Also Philosophy is adaptable to anyone's beliefs and ideals. For instance think of the overly religious Baptist (I know it hurts, but follow me a sec) he or she thinks that they are right, theirs is the only life. They apply religion to their every day life. The Baptist philosophy of fear your God makes them as they are. While someone like a Budist does not see the world as that. They see the world as a place of beauty and peace. Through meditation one can reach Nirvana, and be one with the universe.
By studying ethics we learn what is and is not right, or in some cases the loop holes to these. Since right and wrong are relative in some cases, a person can compare and contrast what he or she believes and what others believe. Again take different religious orders and how they react to certain acts. Ethics is personal as well as societal. People tend to make their own ethics based on what they see, read and hear. With the study of ethics we as people have a greater understanding of what people as a whole consider ethical. Remember what Smecker said in Boondock Saints, "Its ethics, what these men do I believe is right, and necessary, the deliver what the law cannot." (thats a rough paraphrase since the IMDB failed me) Ethics are different from person to person and situation to situation. Mind you that isnt 100% but it is true enough.
With out the study of metaphysics what would be know? The problem with this study is how much is concrete and how much is theory? Though it is better to have theories than nothing. Depending on whom you read and what they are talking about is what you get. Some people allow their beliefs to get in their way of their theories. Remember our Paranormal Psych class? He particularly did not seem to care about much else other than aliens. Which is why we spent so much time going on about them at the end. Maybe thats his area of expertise, if so why not rename the class Area 51, 52, and Roswell?
Also if we didnt have philosophy you would a completely made up degree.
Id go more into this here, but I have to actually try to accomplish something at work...
no subject
Date: 2008-08-25 03:59 pm (UTC)simply because it is the basis for all modern social science. where would we be without Marx, Foucault, Derrida, and the list goes on and on. yes, they may be diametrically opposed in their views, but the modern social sciences and therefore, ALL activist/liberationist movements would either be at a complete ideological standstill, or simple would not exist in the first place.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-26 04:45 am (UTC)When we talk about philosophy, what it WAS to us ages ago was the continued thinking about all things, their relationships, and their functions. Now, it serves more as a means of systematically organizing concepts into formulas for explaining vast quantities of information. Essentially, philosophy has failed to "explain" anything, from physics, to human nature, or morality even, and is better off constructing conceptual frameworks for labeling relationships between those things.
I know
Important? I'd say it's invaluable and without it we are nothing more than grunting, naked apes with iPods. With it, we can formulate a theory for interaction.
Which, is essentially to say that for me, philosophy is a name for a scientific method of organizing societal processes into a logical framework.
And I think everyone knows by now that I don't believe in metaphysics, and even if I did, philosophy can't explain anything there either, because philosophy still deals with our understanding and comprehension of those things that we can observe or infer, (and we infer based on those things we observe) and with metaphyisics, you can do neither, which leaves it outside both the realms of science and traditional philosophy.
At least, that's the set of assumptions I operate under, and really don't hold very dear. I think it would be a lot cooler to have something to do after I die.
Important, yes
Date: 2008-08-27 11:59 am (UTC)We keep running into this problem, as a race. Marx pointed it out, for economics, and various science fiction writers have pointed it out, for the sciences:
We're munchkins. One of the most natural mental processes for humans to engage in is the analysis of how to break a system in our own favor. And then we learn from one another with words that don't convey the total context of the forebear's learning...The result is that people learn to break a system without the understanding that the first munchkin had: the understanding that it isn't very nice.
Do you know, there are thousands of people in America who are engaged in the sale of a business-in-a-box, a product that literally has negative value, and a product the sale of which does nothing for society at large, and those thousands believe they are helping people. The folks at the top of the pyramid scheme, and several of the people on the way down, understand that what they are doing is wrong. But not everybody.
Philosophy, as a mode of study, has been abused in the same way. Philosophy begat sociology begat social engineering. Philosophy begat psychology begat subliminal advertising.
Hah. How backwards. It's not so often the father is tried for the debts and crimes of his sons; usually it's all "sins of the father."