Thread: What is Philosophy?

Philosophy is the study of questions that are vitally important to the functioning of the universe and humanity.

My biggest philisophical question is: what can we know? So far I've found the answer is: not much.

1. Even by living we can only understand what we are percieving(sensing) at a fundamental level and that we exist.

2. Perceptions are the 2nd thing we can be absolutely sure about. We directly percieve and can knowledgeably distinguish things like color, heat, pain, sound volume, taste, etc... because we directly experience them, what we can not do without speculation and making inferrences is know the cause of our perceptions.

BTW the other thing we can be absolutely sure about is that we exist

Epistemology (the study of knowledge) is basically the foundationg of all philosophizing. (in my opinion)

1. I frankly, don't understand this question. How are we not living? I can't speak for you, but i believe I'm living, and can therefore understand life just fine thanks.

2. They define the basis, and boundaries of our philosophical thinking. They're like a filter that define our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

‘BTW the other thing we can be absolutely sure about is that we exist’[/b]

How confident can you be, "Aboslutely Sure"? Are you clear in your mind that you exist? How can you provide evidence for this? “I think therefore I am?” We only know we exist from other people. How do we know what we perceive is real? Say for example, you see a computer desk in front of you, that desk has a monitor and a keyboard, you knock it, its made of wood, you are using it at this moment to read this message, your brain only perceives the data and processes it, in another reality, you might have a glass of water next to your P.C. , you might misread a sentence and have to re-read it again, to find yourself in a dream. Who it to say that your brain isn’t missing something. Is it real if you can only understand the word ‘real’ as a language of meaning, which in itself is a process of thought?

What do you mean by directly experience perceptions? 8)

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When you refer to Epistemology as the ‘foundation of all philosophizing’ what about Metaphysics ? Through perception, all these concepts are jadded by culture, society and intelligence. There is no foundation, only judgment and opinion (Epistemology= the study of knowledge- as you say) The use of the word ‘Study’ infers learning something, but its not about learning, its about questioning, questioning your perceptions, questioning your learning.

1) But I believe I'm living, and can therefore understand life just fine.

Are you a religious person?

2) They define the basis, and boundaries of our philosophical thinking. They're like a filter that define our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Like your second answer btw.

Im not personalising any of this btw, feel free to say what you want, i just want to get a conversation going on this board, like a philosophy group, im not that intelligent, all i learn from is books, not from life, thats the mistake i make

Originally posted by Mystical_Journey

‘BTW the other thing we can be absolutely sure about is that we exist’

How confident can you be, \"Aboslutely Sure\"? Are you clear in your mind that you exist? How can you provide evidence for this? “I think therefore I am?” We only know we exist from other people. How do we know what we perceive is real? Say for example, you see a computer desk in front of you, that desk has a monitor and a keyboard, you knock it, its made of wood, you are using it at this moment to read this message, your brain only perceives the data and processes it, in another reality, you might have a glass of water next to your P.C. , you might misread a sentence and have to re-read it again, to find yourself in a dream. Who it to say that your brain isn’t missing something. Is it real if you can only understand the word ‘real’ as a language of meaning, which in itself is a process of thought?

What do you mean by directly experience perceptions? 8)
[/b]

Of course I'm sure I exist, I can't prove it to you, but if I didn't exist I couldn't contemplate my own existance, that I exist isn't evident from others or my perception, but the fact that I percieve necessitates that I exist.

I also didn't claim to know that what we percieve is real, I only claim that we know that we perceive, and can distinguish things on a very basic level, I can't know that there is an object in front of me that is a monitor, I can only know that I see something that looks like a monitor.

I percieve, it is a true statement because I am percieving right now no logical justification is necessary for me to accept it as true because it is self-evident.

We can't gain knowledge from our perceptions(including our memory) and so we are not justified in believing anything other than that we exist and that we percieve.

Maybe because I come to divergent conclusions rather than drawing my bias on a convergent conclusion Is why I feel a need to try and tie Philoshy so heavily to research. For the most part, a good percentage of research is done by way of math or via developement through studies and then coming to a logical conclusion or fact. I think that Philosophy, Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods should and could be used more often than it is. Sometimes not requiring facts and going opon ones intuition or a hunch can lead to breakthroughs that would have otherwise been immpossible through a linier way of thought.

phi·los·o·phy Audio pronunciation of "Philosophy" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (f-ls-f)
n. pl. phi·los·o·phies

1. Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline.
2. Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods.
3. A system of thought based on or involving such inquiry: the philosophy of Hume.
4. The critical analysis of fundamental assumptions or beliefs.
5. The disciplines presented in university curriculums of science and the liberal arts, except medicine, law, and theology.
6. The discipline comprising logic, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and epistemology.
7. A set of ideas or beliefs relating to a particular field or activity; an underlying theory: an original philosophy of advertising.
8. A system of values by which one lives: has an unusual philosophy of life.

A charcteristic of a human & not a culcualtor

The aim of philosophy is \"to shew the fly out of the fly-bottle\"

Ludwig wittgenstein [/b]

Philosophy after Wittgenstein is the way to step out of the trap of logic. Language is a tool and we can not create theories about the world from concepts because we would then be using mental associations. Language is a tool for describing reality.

We can ask... if someone has explored reality and then he writes down what he found?Couldn't that help us?

Well even if he is right, how can we know the things that his concepts describe?

And if he is wrong?

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't read books offcourse!!!
It means that we don't know if the books are wrong or right...

How much of our knowledge is created or has as a starting point books or other people opinions?

What do we really know and how do we know it is right?

Philosophy is not about answers, is about questions.