Should ordinary people ask philosophic questions ?

Langbein

Well, I think a master, at least a master of philosophy, would know the difference between atacking arguments and attacking persons, but possibly it might be some different kind of "masters".

Langbein

Back to the original question:

"Should ordinary people ask philosophic questions ?"

What is then philosphy, and what is philosophic quesions ? OK then, lets look in Wikipedia to see wat at least some pople agree on at the moment:

"Philosophy is the discipline concerned with the questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy

If practising philosophy is to ask questions to find out the most important things in life, how to live the right way, how to do the right dessitions and so on, would it then be adviceable to leave those questions to some far away expert that don't know my life at all ?

If ordinary people has their own moral, their own beliefs and their own direction in life who will that treaten ? Why should anybody se it as something negative or something treatening that "ordinary people" has their own meaning and direction of life ?

raolduke

The lead singer of Modest Mouse could be described as a normal person.. Read his lyrics and then maybe it would give alittle light to what "ordinary".

Langbein

I have to admit that I have never heard about "Modest Mouse" ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modest_Mouse

Quite interresting - I see the title of one of their albums:

"We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank"

Well, why leave the living or "to be allive" to the experts ?

.. Unless the experts are.. who ?

Smurf

I don't think that's quite what Nietzsche was getting at

Smurf

Exactly, take me for example, I'm ****ing brilliant, but in the last two weeks I havn't talked to a single person who wasn't
1. my roomate, or
2. my co-worker/boss.

great minds don't burn out, they just fix their personal problems.

Smurf

Aristotle wrote a great book, the 'Nichomachean ethics'. Which was basically a guide to how to live a good life. Unfortunately, he didn't actually write it, it was compiled from lecture notes from his son Nicomacheus, hense the name. Also, it was written 2500 years ago, so isn't exactly an easy read from a modern context. I think it would be totally sweet if someone attempted to basically re-write that, or write their own - whatever, today, so that your average person could understand it. Because the only reason I think most people are in capable of understanding philosophy is because no one's putting into a familiar context for them, you have to understand soooo much history just to get Aristotle, Locke, etc,. And they're the easy ones, don't even get me started on Hegel or Kierkegaard.

Langbein

At lest something I can agree on :-) (As I like to have my own opinion about most things.)

This was one of the first books on philosophy I read as a teenager. It has been in my bookshelf ever since then.

The thing that allmost shocked me at that time at 17, was how such a famous person like Aristoteles could write such a easy and available language, that anyone can understand.

I think this book really made me ask myself for the first time: Is it really true that the world is moving forward and that there really is something called "development", or is this just an illusion ?

I cant say anything else that this book should be highly recomended for anyone.

While speaking about Aristoteles do you know some books or some texts that is more directely after Aristoteles than this one ? I believed that this was the closest.

Langbein

That was one of the other great heroes of the teenage years.

Not as easy as Aristoteles.

Professor Dreyfus of Berkeley does an exelent job while explaining Kierkegaard and also sets him into a relationship with some other philosophers.

I think that the freely avalable podcasts of his lessons can be recomended for anyone that would like to know sometbing about Kierkegaard or about philosophy in general.

Even for those who knows Kierkegaard already I think that there might be new ways to see things. (At lest it was like that for me.)

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_d...sid=1906978306

Here is one about more general philosophy:

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_d...sid=1906978407

Smurf

Thank you so much for the recommendation, I've been trying to understand Kierkegaard for almost a year... I see he also does Dostoevsky (my favorite) and Nietzsche, most excellent!

You know they just found a new text of his? (well it wasn't that recent, but) And it's special too! See, it's not lecture notes like all his other books, it was actually written for popular consumption, it's about the role of philosophy and stuff, not sure where you'd get it, one of my profs gave me a handout. If I can't find it online I'd be willing to scan and email it to you if you really want.

raolduke

These are some nice lyrics here..



http://www.the-collective.net/~bwillen/ModestMouse.HTM

Tosh

Philosophy is important when it affects people, ordinary people. The best philosopher is the one who can bring his/her concepts to a level which all people understand.