[Bups-dis] purposes etc.

[Sophie Erskine]

Dear Luis, 
 
I did understand the argument you gave; my points in the last email were as
a response to Ron's perspective. You and I, however, seem to agree that
reason is used both in everyday life and in philosophy, but that philosophy
is not identical to everyday reasoning. 
 
I still have the intuition that man-made constructs (unlike, say, trees or
rivers or planets), since they are made for a purpose, can be said to have
one (although, in some cases, clearly, things are made in order to serve a
wide variety of purposes). If this purpose subsequently can be said to
change over time (because, for example, the vast majority of people start to
use the thing in a new way), the purpose for which it was made may be called
the 'original purpose' in constrast to the new one - but, I think, it is
rare to find cases in which the original purpose is completely superseded by
the new anyway. It can, of course, be the case that many different people
use a thing in order to achieve many different ends, and there is no
normative constraint prioritizing one end over another; but I do not think
that this is a case of a thing having many different PURPOSES so much as
being used in many different ways. But perhaps it's just a matter of
terminology. 
 
However, I think talk of purposes somewhat confuses the original issue,
since the meaning of my question was not so much 'What did people originally
intend philosophy to be for?' but rather 'What CAN it be for?' This may in
some cases require a similar answer to 'What OUGHT it to be for?' but has a
different sense to 'What do people use it for?' Basically, I was pondering
on the scope and utility of philosophy. But I think you have answered my
question very well with respect to your own case anyway! I think it's
interesting that you study philosophy in the end to help yourself and
others, but not because you think philosophy will directly bring this about
or because it's particularly suited to this aim. So, for you, studying - say
- ethics will put you in a better position to live a better life and help
others to do so, but not because of the nature of the subject (rather,
because it's something you enjoy which is challenging)? If so, that's quite
ironic.. I very much admire your attitude towards self-improvement, though.