Philosophy

Noname · **on:** May 30, 2009, 07:51:34 PM

While I'm not exactly a "land before time philosopher", I do like the formal fields of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and aesthetics (well, maybe not the last one.)

My main influence is the philosopher Plato in this regard. Does anyone else like philosophy?

Amaranthine · **Reply #1 on:** May 30, 2009, 10:22:44 PM

Philosophy to me is like a paradox of a paradox, of a paradox, of a paradox. xD

I love it, though there are some philosophers I don't really care for, nor have I ever read about, or at least, read enough about to actually know about them.

Metaphysics is one of my favorites. ^_^

Noname · **Reply #2 on:** May 30, 2009, 10:28:08 PM

Me too. I like metaphysics the most, then epistemology, then logic.

Malte279 · **Reply #3 on:** May 31, 2009, 07:39:54 AM

I am quite interested in philosophy in general, though I admit there are kinds of philosophy which seem so detached from practical effect or our life that I cannot relate to them. The philosopher "Hans Jonas" for example (I had to read his book "The Imperative of Responsibility" at school) wrote in a manner that makes me wonder if he deliberately wrote in a way that made it almost impossible to understand what he was talking about (not sure if it is as bad in the English translation). One important thing about philosophy is that while one can learn from many great philosophers one ultimately has to make up ones own mind which also means disagreeing with some of the philosophers. Not all the great philosophers said or wrote made sense.
Aristotle for example, who unlike his teacher Plato had a very negative view on women, insisted to the end of his life that women had less teeth than men. Though he was married to Pythias it apparently never occurred to Aristotle to take a look into his wife's mouth to verify his claim or rather discover that he had been talking nonsense.

One book which I recommend to all who are interested in Philosophy but are not all eager to read the highly complex works of philosophers is "Sophie's world" by Jostein Gaarder. This novel is exciting to read and gives a very good and easy to understand overview about the history and development of philosophy.

Noname · **Reply #4 on:** May 31, 2009, 03:13:40 PM

Well... Aristotle was a scientist as much as he was a philosopher; although he prefigured the scientific method in many ways, the blind obedience to his teachings kept science back after a point... It wasn't until the Condemnations of 1277 in Paris that scientists began to move forward... and even then, it was a fairly slow progression until the high renaissance.

Plato was more of a "pure" philosopher, while Aristotle was a polymath, in that he was good at many, many things, such as botany, zoology, philosophy, and literary criticism of all things.