What makes a Philosopher

[Moppie]

What makes someone a Philosopher?

For those that don't know I am by any modern definition a Philosopher.
Im 2 papers away from a degree in philosophy and ethics, and plan to return for a masters and PhD when I get sick of the real world.
I can offer many theorys and counter arguments about a whole host of differnt ideas and concepts, and I have many of my own ideas about how things are or should be. I am well read and have studyed some of the greatest minds who ever lived, as well as being taught by some of the greatest minds currently living. I contemplate anything and everything and can spend hours just thinking about something that may seem very simple untill examined in detail.

But does haveing some kind of formal qualification in philosophy make someone a philosospher? or is there more to it, prehaps a natural talent for abstract thought, or the ablity to look at a problem from an alternative angle and ponder it for as long as is nessacry to solve it.

Clearly a mastery of spelling and grammer are not a requirment, and I think it may even work as a hinderance as it can trap the mind into set ways and inhibbit free thought out side of the norm. Certianly many great philosophers have also been linguists, and so see and study the limits of language allowing them to twist it and use it in new ways to get across new and original ideas.

[1989 DX R]

I am too shallow to be one. By shallow i mean in my thought processes.

[Bean Bandit]

A Philosopher should be
- open minded
- objective at the things he looks at
- be able to sneak in someones point of view and understand what he meant
- have a vast amount of asociations to anything (cause in nature everything has consequences) actio et reactio
-
-
-
- be able to fill these missing points

[VW_Redliner]

:argue: The way I see it....Everyone with a mind of their own is a philosopher. I don't know if this Philosophy is completly asinine or not. You can decide. But, every person has opinions. Philosophies are made of opinions. Technicaly an opinion is not true or false. A fact is but not an opinion. There are no "wrong" opinions, so there are no "wrong" philosophies. Every opinion is a philosophy in itself. So you can see why everyone is a Philospher. What you do with your philosophy is up to you.

Moppie do you agree with this?

[Moppie]

Yes and no.
I think there has to be more to it than just someone having a certian opinion before it becomes a philosophy. You also need to have the reasoning behind it, and this reasoning needs to be resonably sound and make an attempt to avoid contianing things like Circular arguments, and contradictory statements.

As for there being no wrong opinions, well I think you will find many people who disagree.
It would be very hard to say that the opinions of Hitler were not wrong. Its possible to say something like, Opinions are only in the mind of the holder, and moral judgments can not be made on them untill they are turned into action, but that is dependant largly upon your own moral views, and can even encompass differnt ideas on what is mind.

A good start though, and something to think about a little more.





1989 DX R I disagree with your statment. Iv found quite a bit of what you've said in here to be deep and thoughtfull.

[MBTN]

You must answer the question with another question.

[taranaki]

Originally posted by Moppie

It would be very hard to say that the opinions of Hitler were not wrong.

While I in no way endorse the opinions of Hitler,the terrifying reality is that his opinions were held to be right by a significant body of people for a signifcant length of time,and continue to be held by a minority to this day.We cannot dismiss opinions as wrong however repugnant the idea itself.An opinion cannot be right or wrong, it is in itself an absolute.

[1989 DX R]

Opinions are like piles of shit. When you step on someone's it makes a big mess.

[SickLude]

I feel as though a philosopher is someone who is abstractly smart, and with confidence, states his openminded opinion linguisticly. sure, a degree helps, but to what degree does a degree benefit the individual?? i know tons and tons of people who are very bright but who simply lack the resources to go to school, or who are smarter than the system and can figure things out for themselves. ill take this example. Good Will Hunting..i know its a movie, however, in many ways this movie was true. i totally believe that there are people like that, who can read a book and understand it perfectly without the help of a teacher. personally, i dont care what school gives you their piece of paper with a wood frame around it, thats hung on your wall. if your able to have intellectual conversations and think subjectivly, then you've done it for me.

Note: sorry for the spelling errors.....my hands are cold.

[Zeno]

"Everything is relative."

That's the best philosophical statement I've ever read.

[1989 DX R]

Thats not nescessarly true. You have to have some absolutes, or else there would be anarchy.

BTW, Anarchy is the closest thing to a true Democracy. The reason being is that a true Democracy is where everyone has a say in what happens, and when there is Anarchy, everyone is in charge of only themself

[JD@af]

Originally posted by taranaki


While I in no way endorse the opinions of Hitler,the terrifying reality is that his opinions were held to be right by a significant body of people for a signifcant length of time,and continue to be held by a minority to this day.We cannot dismiss opinions as wrong however repugnant the idea itself.An opinion cannot be right or wrong, it is in itself an absolute.

I enthusiastically agree 100%

As for the original question, I think that being a philosopher, in a "professional" sense, seems to be something that you can claim Moppie, while most of us can not (I know I certainly can't - I took a few philosophy courses in college, that's about it). However, to me, philosophy is looking at things from a new perspective, keeping on open mind about other's opinions, and at least attempting to consider everything, in hopes to form rational to unconventional statements or justifications about anything and everything in the world. It was under these premises that I founded the Philosophizing forum (well, actually I asked Igor, who actually founded it ).

Maybe I should look the word up again to see if this entire forum is way off-base... :huh:

[Moppie]

Originally posted by JD@af


Maybe I should look the word up again to see if this entire forum is way off-base... :huh:

Not at all.
Except for the thread on simpsons chracters this forum is doing ecxeptionaly well.

Besides Philosophy the word has become one of those strange words that no seems to able t acuratly define.
(hence trouble defining what is a philosopher).

But the best definition I can offer is to simply tranlsate it.

"Philo" at its most simple understanding means Love.
"Sophy" means knowledge.

So PhiloSophy is a "Love of Knowledge."


(Now all we need is Fritz and Texan to add thier part)

[JD@af]

Originally posted by Moppie

(Now all we need is Fritz and Texan to add thier part)

Agreed. Hope you had a lovely New Years. Cheers mate :sun:

[fritz_269]

This is off the cuff, so it may be quite flawed, but to me:
Philosophy is thinking about the way we think. Meta-thinking if you will.

Philosophy is basically thinking about anything that has no direct action associated with it. It's not thinking about going to dinner, what you're going to eat, what you did eat, how to say something, or even how to build an engine - these are things with associated direct actions, past, present or future. Philosophy about the indirect, it tries to decern, describe and define the way in which we go about formulating the directed thoughts. It keeps asking the underlying ontological questions that pester the teleological mind.

Just a thought...