Is the use of philosophical thinking, teaching, and argumentation useful? Philosophy has been taught for millennia, and has been very influential over the course of human history. Because of its quasi perpetuity, it would not be a radical idea to assume that philosophy has its uses. I would agree with this conjecture; philosophy is useful in many different ways. Philosophy is useful because it helps us understand what we do and do not know; it draws a line between having actual knowledge and having ignorance, allowing us to recompose what we thought we knew into actual knowing. Philosophy also allows us to comprehend the way we perceive the world and recognize that one individual’s theory of reality is different compared to anyone else’s, because of the different prejudices, experiences, or beliefs that one might have.
One could argue that, although philosophy might have uses, it doesn’t necessarily mean its uses are useful. In order to understand how philosophy’s uses are useful, the term useful must be defined. In order for something to have usefulness, it must have the ability to be applied for or toward a specific purpose; to be able to be utilized in a fashion that gets a job done, or achieve an end. In order for an object or an idea to be useful, it must be advantageous, or able to be put to good use by the user. This objective, dictionary-esque interpretation of usefulness can be deciphered in a couple of different subjective ways.
Aristotle says in his Metaphysics that “For the end of contemplative knowledge is truth, but of practical knowledge it is action;” (Aristotle’s Metaphysics, 993b 20). What Aristotle is saying is that there are two subcategories of knowledge: contemplative, and practical. Contemplative knowle...
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...osophically by remaining skeptical, and interrogating such creations, we can interpret both the origination of these concepts, and how they might be useful to Humankind.
In the end, philosophy is more than just a basic area of study like mathematics or history, it is the scrutinization, analyzation, and interrogation of how our world works, how we function, and how our thoughts operate. While anatomy and physiology defines the structure and chemical processes of the brain, philosophy attempts to discover meaning in our thoughts. History teaches us how wars began and ended; philosophy tries to make sense of the reasoning behind why war even exists. Philosophy is more than just useful, it is invaluable. Philosophy explains how we perceive the world, and how everything works inside of it. It grants us understanding of ourselves, and our existence in this universe.
With this, we may realize our minuscule role in the universe and begin to approach things more rationally. With philosophy, we can remove our dogmatic assertions and adopt a bigger but less certain perspective of things. Not to mention, it's absolutely fascinating.
This paper will be covering what knowledge essentially is, the opinions and theories of J.L. Austin, Descartes, and Stroud, and how each compare to one another. Figuring out what knowledge is and how to assess it has been a discussion philosophers have been scratching their heads about for as long as philosophy has been around. These three philosophers try and describe and persuade others to look at knowledge in a different light; that light might be how a statement claiming knowledge is phrased, whether we know anything at all for we may be dreaming, or maybe you’re just a brain in a vat and don’t know anything about what you perceive the external world to be.
middle of paper ... ... Of these tools he felt that logic was one of the most important, if not the most important tool used in rhetoric thinking. Aristotle considered rhetoric a tool in argumentation, particularly the kind that arose in the courts and halls of government of his time.
A possible nonfiction plot based on this idea of the necessity of philosophy would to create a fictional situation where the world doesn’t have philosophy. The story would show the effects a world without philosophy would have on in it. It would cause many people to lose hope and meaning to their lives. In society like today, survival is not as difficult in the past where there is a need to fight against the weather, animals and limited resources. Humans wouldn’t live to survive and the lack of philosophy would take away some peoples purpose of
Philosophy is a very important part of people’s lives. Philosophy is quite basically asking inquiries about existence, reality and nature of knowledge. To better understand philosophy we must look throughout history. Looking back through history helps better show what the philosophers thought during the time period in which they lived. The relativity of the theories, to the time period, is a very important factor in how efficient these theories they were. The first philosopher’s ideas to people today would be considered either very basic, or insane. Yet, in the time period they lived in, they were considered to be geniuses. Also, looking back through time and studying philosophers and what they believed can help create a better idea for our own philosophical creations. The first philosophers were also known as the Presocratics. They were called this because they were in a time period before Socrates was born. They mainly focused on answering what is the explanation of nature, also referred to as metaphysics. Even before the Presocratic philosophers, we need to look at the ancient Greek poets that created myths and examine how their stories came into being made and how it had an effect on their civilization. These myths are a part of Philosophy because they were the first ideas about creation. The transition between these mythic worldviews and pre-Socratic philosophers’ worldview was important because it lays down the structural work for great philosophers to learn from them and develop further theories based on their findings.
There is a complex process through which a person acquires knowledge, and it depends on the mental capacity of a person as to how much knowledge he can acquire. In Plato’s Republic, we can see what knowledge does for the man in the allegory of the cave. In this story, knowledge was acquired by experience. In Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, we learn what the ultimate intellectual virtues are and that wisdom is the highest of all. Knowledge from Plato and wisdom from Aristotle can be connected through the achievement of intellect.
Plato and Aristotle propose theories of knowledge in which they both agree that the knower is measure by the known and that knowledge is an exchange within the world. However, their respective theories may be considered polar opposites of one another especially when considering that Aristotle rejects Plato’s theory and admits that ‘informed opinion’, is a form of knowledge whereas Plato rejects opinion as a form of knowledge.
Some of the first major philosophical works that I read were Descartes’ Meditations. In his first Meditation, Descartes writes about the idea of skepticism. This is when I was exposed to the topic of skepticism and I found myself interested in the idea right from the start. Skepticism is one of the most popular topics in epistemology. It is also not a topic that only appeals to philosophers. Skepticism is a topic that draws many people’s attention because it is an idea that rocks the cores of many of the beliefs that are closest to us. After all, some of the concepts that follow from the idea of skepticism are ones such as we might not actually have any knowledge of the world or the world, as we know it, might not actually be real. Skeptical scenarios prove to be both intriguing and intimidating. Responses to skepticism usually turn out to be satisfying in some ways but carry unwanted baggage in other ways. Overall, skepticism is a topic that much thought has been dedicated to and one that has led to many philosophical developments. In this paper, I will touch upon
In The Metaphysics, Aristotle states, “All men by nature desire to know.” Although, this is a generalization, of this insightful statement about the nature of humans and human understanding this statement truly captures what Aristotle was trying to figure out about humans and their thinking. Everyone has a desire to know or to understand. As rational beings we tend to contemplate very simple ideas to the most complicated, like our existence, or parts of the universe, or the universe as a whole. Aristotle is known as the father of modern day psychology and biology, even though many of his ideas of these two sciences was proven incorrect. The most important concepts of Aristotle’s theory of human understanding are the notion of cause, the infinite, and the soul.
Bertrand Russell explains in his article that the value of philosophy is not in the definite answers, but in the questions and possibilities that it raises. He states that “The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty.” This can relate to the Milesians, the answers they came up with weren’t important, but the process used to get them. He says that the more we practice philosophy the more we begin to question everyday things in our life, and we come to find that the answers are only bigger questions. These questions lead to limitless possibilities, broadened horizons, and freedom from what we “know”. Russell hints that philosophy can help you see things in a different light, in a sense taking off the rose colored glasses and seeing the world for what it is.
He differentiates between types of actuality and potentiality: one as knowledge, the other as reflecting. He uses the example of how a person can be described as a knower, meaning that a “man falls within the class of beings that know or have knowledge, or…as when we are speaking of a man who possesses a knowledge of grammar”(Aristotle 350BC/1994) and thirdly that the knower is actively exercising his “possession of sense of grammar” (Aristotle 350BC/1994). A knower in the first sense is a human being, who has the potential to know something and in the second sense, the knower has some knowledge, but unlike the third sense, is not thinking about it or using it. In the third sense, the knower is putting their knowledge into practise. The notion of the first actuality can be seen in Aristotle’s definition of the soul, “The soul is the first actuality of a natural body that is potentially alive” (Aristotle 350BC/1994)). The first actuality can also be seen as being a type of potentiality; it is the ability to participate in the activity of the next actuality. This therefore suggests that the soul is a form of capacity whereby actions or activities that are characteristic of a thing, for example a human, are able to engage in. These activities include movement, contemplating and perception and so on. For this reason, Aristotle
many different topics which can be covered under the umbrella of philosophy. Philosophers are supposed
Russell provides a few good arguments that would make people consider looking into philosophy, who would otherwise not think about it. He explains that thinking like the “practical man” could lead to one becoming dogmatic rather than thinking deeply and coming to one’s own conclusions. He also addresses the importance of studying philosophy as one would study natural sciences. Russell’s reasons for studying philosophy involve the importance of philosophy itself, as well as reasons for studying which will benefit one much deeper than just philosophy. His evidence is too compelling to argue in my eyes, which is why I agree with his reasons for studying
The term “philosophy” means the love of wisdom, and those that study philosophy attempt to gain knowledge through rationality and reason. 1 Socrates, the father of ancient philosophy, once stated “the unexamined life is not worth living”. This is the most important part of life and it is need to find purpose and value in life. If a person chooses to live their life without examination, their life would lack value and they would be unhappy. They would also be ignorant to the effects of their choices on themselves and the people around them.
The word “philosophy” is derived from two roots that are “philo” and “Sophia.” Philo means love whereas Sophia means wisdom. Therefore, philosophy means the love of wisdom. In actual practice, philosophy entails study of, pursuit, and enquiry into wisdom. A good number of great philosophers have referred to philosophy as the art of thinking. Others have only defined it as the systematic study of human feelings and thoughts.