Philosophy has always been such a boring subject to me, boring in the sense that it’s endlessly redundant. Certain components of philosophy are interesting to discuss, but in the end there are no answers or even compromises people can make as it’s entirely subjective and based on little to no empirical evidence. In the end it’s a bunch of people asking “why?” until there isn’t even anything to discuss, the only thing you can do is go in an endless circle of pointless redundancy. Does free will exist? Does it matter? Regardless of any conclusion as to whether we have free will or not our actions will not be impinged or altered. There are little ways that people can differentiate their opinion, but the whole concept is based on the underlying question of the existence of an omnipresent, all-powerful deity which can not be verified or argued for by any claim. Does reality exist? This particular question drives me up walls. Solipsism is only for pretentious people that wish to assert or demonstrate their “intelligence” by proposing complex extrapolations that ultimately have no merit and are little more than well articulated gibberish. Actually, I think that’s what most of philosophy is. What is the meaning of life? Why do we exist? I don’t even know if that qualifies as philosophy (fairly sure it does) but no matter what anyone proposes it’s ultimately subjective and constructed by the individual’s perspective on life, unless argued for by a theist that believes in a grand design, to which they have no basis to claim so. I don’t mean to sound hateful, I’m not a malicious person, I’d say I’m easy going in fact but I’m terribly biased, but anyways that’s my opinion on something I see endlessly on different forums which gives me a headache and drives me to come on SP and spew my woes and sorrows to everyone.
share your suicide story
Report Post
Please log in to report posts
25 comments
I like philosophy… some questions do seem rather pointless to me but I like to explore them in different ways/views. I consider free will an illusion and you can take that in a “god” way or a deterministic/causality way… we are just products and functions of our atoms or our nurture/nature or simply all the events which have lead up until this moment. Is there only one course moving forward or infinite? Either way, we are unaware and there are too many variables to ever reliably predict. Philosophy lets me question my “nurture and nature” though… And I like this. Why do I believe the things I believe? Why do I value certain things? What does it mean for something to be good/bad? Can these things ever be absolute? Lately… I’ve thought a lot about the relationship between reason and emotions. Reason is considered objective, logical, rational, intelligent, impersonal. Emotions are essentially biological needs or reactions, primal almost… irrational, maybe? But emotions just follow a different set of rules… natural rules. Reason feels like a “good” thing. “Emotional” leans towards “bad.” But why… as a society… have we established and ingrained such connotations? Are these correct? And wtf do I do with any of this…
Yeah. You might be able to tell…. I probably wouldn’t be on this website if I could just engage in a chemical lobotomy of sorts every morning before I left the house. Sadly… so sadly… that is not functional or socially acceptable.
The cool thing about philosophy is that it forces you to ask questions that don’t necessarily have answers.
When people tell you that they know about the meaning of life, how we got here, what happens after you die, etc., they’re (most likely) confusing opinions with facts. People who “have” these answers believe they know the truth, but they’re simply spewing beliefs. Believing that you know the truth doesn’t actually mean that you do.
I like philosophy because it asks questions without pretending to know the answers.
That’s how you find the truth. Go in without any pre-conceived notions, build on what’s known/proven, but be ready for any surprises you may find in your quest.
I don’t see the point in asking a question that doesn’t have an answer, isn’t the point of asking a question is to get an answer?
Just because there isn’t an answer yet doesn’t mean there won’t be one down the line. Gotta keep pressing on.
In the theory of evolution the species is continually moving forward. They are advancing. Maybe human beings are super primitive compared to what they’ll be 1,000 years from now. How do humans today regard humans from one thousand years ago?
I like to think it’s an ongoing process. We’re still a work in progress. We’re in a state of becoming – we haven’t yet reached our full potential.
Solipsism is sophistry, and the sophists were rich tutors. Therefore, money exists, which negates solipsism. But on the topic of philosophy, it’s actually quite a useful field, as everybody practices it. Most don’t know it, though. It’s about thinking – logic is philosophy, and science was once a branch of philosophy before the two got a divorce and science forced philosophy into paying child support to help cover the costs of raising their children, the stupid people of the world. If only science and philosophy had used birth control.
reminds me of Stephen Hawking’s ‘The Grand Design’ “philosophy is dead, science is now the torch bearer of discovery”
Science is still philosophy, it just doesn’t realize what it is, or why. The scientific method itself is a statement of philosophical ethics. Just highly specific ones. It’s like how Da Vinci was both an artist and an inventor/engineer – he painted the human form to better understand it, and dissected cadavers to help inform his art. His art informed his scientific explorations, and his scientific explorations enriched his art because both were the practice of the same thing.
Science is based on tangible observation though which leads to further hypothesis’ which can be objectively verified, very different than philosophy IMO
Not everything can be explained. Some things have to be experienced before they can be understood.
(That was cryptic. Sorry. The Cheez-It’s are kicking in).
Russo: philosophy is about reasoning. Science is about reasoning. Same thing.
Hush, Morris. You might give away the most ancient secrets guarded by the brotherhood of he traveling wombat. Dionysus would not be pleased.
you are too much, xan. 🙂
I agree with this post. Philosophy is simply about discussing various perspectives. The more opinions that you hear, the more you have to agree or disagree with, but in the end, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be much wiser in the grand scheme of things. If you want to get ahead in life, it’s better to spend your time studying human psychology and sociology, and if you want to seem empirically intelligent, you’ll learn more by studying science – any and all fields that interest you.
the point of philosophy is to shove your opinion down as many peoples’ throats as you can and beat them in the face with it until they can’t talk anymore. IMO
As an existential nihilist, I believe that everyone follows their own philosophy in life. How can anyone expect someone else to agree with their personal philosophy, unless that individual has a very similar mindset? Therefore philosophy should be about *discussion*, throwing around abstract ideas and pragmatic concepts, not about convincing everyone of how right they are and how wrong everybody else is.
Almost all of philosophy is not pragmatic, which is a large reason as to why I dislike it.
That is true. Perhaps I should have said “occasionally pragmatic concepts, but mostly abstract.” I totally get what you’re saying though, I too am much more of a realist than an idealist. Ideas are nice and all, but can these specific concepts be applied in the real world? That’s the question I would be asking. If they can’t, they’re not much use to me.
‘the point of philosophy is to shove your opinion down as many peoples’ throats as you can and beat them in the face with it until they can’t talk anymore.’
– I think you’re confusing philosophy wth religion.
The point of philosophy is that, in seeking answers to one question, you often discover other things totally irrelevant to your original question, but just as important. And I agree with xanadu about the intersection between science and philosophy – they have the same goal of seeking answers to a question, but they differ in methodology. Science demands finate proof, and philosophy recognises that not all questions can be answered with finite proof. Because of this difference, philosophy is better suited to pursue the answers to different kinds of questions – science asks ‘How do we live’ while philosophy asks ‘Why do we live’. Personally I think philosophy asks the more interesting questions.
I don’t know.. this is a very thought provoking post.. I think it is the confusion between belief and fact that does the damage. For everyone has a right to their beliefs, opinions and they have a right to ponder it all (which is philosophy) but its not ok to force it on someone else.. That is where damage is caused… @Russo thanks for this (although in my opinion this is a philosophical post as there is no answer just opinion 😛 )
I’ve been sitting here all day trying to figure out whether killing myself is right right thing to do. Science says yes – the problems I have now are unlikely to get better (actually likely to get worse). The pain is not really worth the small contribution I can give to the planet. Philosophy says no – how am I to know the knock on effects this will have? I have about 10 hours. That part is the only quantifyable part of the equation.
Aww one_day 🙁 there is no answer.. you don’t know the knock on effects for anything you do. And even science doesn’t say yes for probability is never definite, things might get better in the weirdest ways. They might not. Do you want to find out?
On a selfish level I want you to stay very much. For I am one of the people that is grateful for your small contribution.
i just can’t. Sorry. I spent a lifetime contemplating philosophy but I can’t ignore science.
Science is incapable of making value judgments in and of itself. To the question of whether you should kill yourself, science would say, “Irrelevant.”
Hey there Russo 🙂
Formal logic is a branch of philosophy, and it’s a core component of the scientific method (which, it could be argued, is also a branch of philosophy). Formal logic helps us identify fallacious reasoning, eliminate bias, evaluate input and weigh evidence, etc etc; things which have practical, real-world value.
Having said that, I agree that many philosophical ponderings seem like useless navel gazing.