Thursday, July 9, 2009

do we need more Philosophy today?

Yes we do, IMO.


Can one self-proclaim him/herself a "philosopher", asked a friend - IMO, yes, much a singer, poet, painter, etc, can! Being a philosopher does not mean one is a good philosopher, that is for each "reader" of his/her philosophies to determine! JMO

Socrates, Plato et al produced philosophy for all, not the elites.

Philosophy = the pursuit of wisdom (ie a philosopher is not a guru or a preacher or an activist or a policy or law maker, et etc) - the genre of "philosophy" I practice is secular, logic driven, applied and serves as food for thought, not "dogma" or the like.

IMO wise men/women are wise, whereas philosophers seek wisdom (and enlightenment)

IMO know thyself = wisdom, world awareness = enlightenment - philosophers r the seekers of both (by analogy to SWOT)

IMO the No. 1 task for philosophers today is to inspire others to be more philosophical, ie to think before doing to ponder to ask why not only how, to become more "philosophised", to reach better decisions in all aspects of life and thus have a better chance to achieve happiness (ie the goal in life, according to Aristotle).

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