RE: what's the point of philosophy

[nd603@soton.ac.uk]

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the point of philosophers is to do the deep thinking so that others don't
have to.and apologies if somebody has already mentioned it (i missed it if
they did) but surely the most important and influential role philosophy has
ever played is in religion? theology is essentially, to my mind, the branch
of philosophy that deals specifically with religion (the truth of whichever
religion is entirely irrelevant here, what is important is that they are
thinking about things in a way that is philosophical)

this is also true of politics and many other areas - philosophers provide
the justification for things to exist/happen.i think the most important
thing is to leave the scope as broad as possible when defining philosophy -
most people wouldn't count themselves as being philosphers, but i'll bet
they've all thought about things philosophically from time to time.

this is because everyone feels the need to question the basis of
reality/things at times - the only difference is that philosophers feel
this need more strongly, and hence dedicate their lives to it, which will
inevitably lead to a more detailed and sophisticated knowledge of the
issues.and at the end of the day, most people would be interested in our
conclusions.(provided we reach any)

nick




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