[Bups-dis] question for bups-dis

[Sophie Erskine]

Dear Luis, 

My question is partially related to the purpose of philosophy, yes; and in
questions relating to purpose, I'm not sure that there is a great difference
between asking what the purpose of an activity (or whatever) is, and what it
should be. 

However, providing an answer to the purpose question would not really
satisfy my curiosity as I described it. If one were to answer it by claiming
that the purpose of philosophy is to solve certain puzzles or paradoxes, I
could still ask: and what is the purpose of THAT? What role ought our
(aimed-at) solutions to have? How ought philosophy to feature in real life?


Perhaps our attempt to solve philosophical problems is merely our way of
participating in an intellectual game, akin - for example - to playing
chess; in this case, the results of our inquiry may not have much practical
use. Or maybe, in engaging with these questions, we are really attempting to
search out the truth in order to assess - and perhaps change - our own view
of the way things are, and perhaps to change the way we live. In short, I'm
wondering about the practical usage of philosophy.

It might be the case that this question is too broad to cover the whole of
the subject: some may have the intuition that - for example - ethics and
political philosophy have comparatively much more influence on day-to-day
affairs, whereas formal and philosophical logic are more abstract in nature.
Personally, I think all of philosophy should be directly practical and
should directly affect the way we think and live; but I'm interested to hear
what others think. You may be surprised that I'm posing this question to a
list of philosophy lovers - but, I assure you, I do know other philosophy
students who think philosophy's role is and should be completely detached
from 'the real world', if you'll let me use that expression.. 


-----Original Message-----
From: bups-dis-bounces at list.bups.org [mailto:bups-dis-bounces at list.bups.org]
On Behalf Of Luis Johnstone
Sent: 17 July 2007 18:41
To: bups-dis at bups.org
Subject: Re: [Bups-dis] question for bups-dis

To reply to this message or start a new topic please email:
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Sophie,

I assume that you are asking what the purpose of philosophy is. But is yours
a merely empirical question about what Philosophy is or do you want to know
what people think Philosophy ought to be?

Regards,

Luis.


Sophie Erskine wrote:
> To reply to this message or start a new topic please email: 
> BUPS-DIS at bups.org
> -
>
> Here is a short but (I think!) important question: What is philosophy for?
>  
> Obviously, philosophy is a broad subject which covers various 
> different sub-topics, on the subject of which it asks different 
> questions. (How should we live? What exists and what is it like? What 
> is knowledge? What are the right principles to reason by?) But, in 
> investigating the answers to these questions, are we merely solving 
> some interesting puzzles, or are we clarifying matters that will 
> really change the way we see things? Should philosophy remain 
> abstracted from real life, or should it be an essential inquiry - 
> which is then acted upon - into the way experience should be interpreted?
In short, what is philosophy's active role in our lives?
>  
> Any responses will be received interestedly!
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