Is Philosophy Worthwhile?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=256344

by trominos • 18 years ago

5 8 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've never studied philosophy. I think, however, that I have a general sense of what it is that I cobbled together from Wikipedia and discussions with my friends, and frankly it sounds like a lot of semantic nonsense. (PG's essay on the topic rang very true with me.)

Still, it seems like a lot of smart people think that philosophy (or studying philosophy, at least) is valuable in some way -- even people who've been exposed to the "philosophy is bullshit" contingent.

Is it?

Rodya• 18 years ago

I suppose it depends on how deep you go. If you study any one thing too much, you can lose sight of other important things as well as the very thing you are studying. A fair understanding of basic concepts behind Western and Eastern philosophies will help you understand different parts of the cultures you can interact with as well as people who are influenced by those philosophies.

A basic understanding of all subjects is definitely a good thing, further study can be either a benefit or a detriment, depending on what you study and how far you go with it. Personally, I have spent years studying philosophy and enjoy it a great deal.

alnayyir3• 18 years ago

I'm deep into philosophy.

If all you want to do with your life is code and breed copies of yourself, it is of no use to you.

Honestly I don't think it'll do someone who doesn't see the value, any good. And even if you did pursue, I think you'd be led astray.

The fact of the matter is, is that you must value truth as a noumena, something to be valued for the sake of itself.

If truth holds no intrinsic value to you, then you certainly didn't need to make a post here about it.

However, if the truth does hold value to you, I'd be willing to introduce you to philosophy. You can contact me via alnayyir at gmail dot com if you're so inclined.

alnayyir3• 18 years ago

On a side note, it's perceived as bullshit because only one philosophical explanation of an aspect of existence can be correct at any one given moment. That being the case, statistically, philosophy is bullshit.

But so are scientific theories until otherwise refined. We work with what we have.

olavk• 18 years ago

> only one philosophical explanation of an aspect of existence can be correct

If you study philosophy, you will probably get that notion challenged :)

schtog• 18 years ago

I think one problem is a lot of people seem to like to call themselves philosophers because they then think that they can just think things without having to motivate or argue for them and usually accompany that with the normal bullshit argument that science doesn't explain everything(hey noone said it does and obviously there are loads of things to discover left, we just said it does a better job of explaining things than any other system of thought). However that's not what philosophy is, rather it is about arguing and thinking about stuff that can't be verified by experiments, it doesn't mean you can just say blahaba, that is mysticism.

However I think there is great value in philosophy and everyone obviously does it more or less in their lives without studying at university.

As far as hackers go:

It has value for science, discussing the scientific method and clearing up expressions so that we can argue clearly and logically without fallacies.

It has value for AI and robotics in discussing the morals of inventing intelligent/conscious systems and discussing if it is even possible or not.

msluyter• 18 years ago

I love philosophy and find it highly rewarding, but asking whether it's "valuable" might be the wrong question. Is poetry valuable? Certainly not in terms of anything practical that would get us a job or make money (other than in the English dept. at a university, I suppose.). But in the sense of enriching our lives and (perhaps) making them more meaningful, certainly. Same with philosophy.

That said, I do think there is a fair bit of practical value in doing philosophy. The ability to frame a logically coherent argument is still as important today as it was in ancient Greece. Why is "everyone does it so it must be OK" a specious argument, for example? A philosophical frame of mind is, above all, questioning and curious, and an open, questioning mind is a huge asset. Philosophy also requires imagination and abstract reasoning, and at a minimum the practice of it helps build these skills.

Perhaps it simply boils down to one's subjective level of interest in philosophical questions: "What is morality?" "What is Truth?" "Can we know anything with absolute certainty?" etc... Some of these, in their more specific forms have practical import:"Should euthanasia be legalized" "Is it OK to eat meat? If so, howabout Fluffy the Poodle, or Barney the Chimp, or your mom (where do you draw the line, and why?)" "Is 'knowledge' synonymous with 'scientific knowledge' (ie, if not arrived at via science, it's not 'knowledge'?" Etc...

If you enjoy thinking/arguing/discussing such questions, then you'll find value in philosophy.

Philosophaster• 18 years ago

Philosophy is good as an exercise in approaching questions systematically, learning to make arguments, and examining foundational assumptions of a discipline or theory. It's also useful to learn about the philosophical background of ideologies, especially political beliefs, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Philosophy as an end in itself, detached from knowledge or consideration of specific empirical facts, is mostly a dead end.

Is Philosophy Worthwhile?

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