Why do we need philosophy?

[Primitivist Jemaoi Aaja Aaja]

I've come across many philosophical threads on this forum before, and I must say none of it really seems to matter to me. I mean I really don't see how it's useful for anything. It doesn't seem interesting, nor does it appear to solve any big problems. So I ask you nsg, why do we need philosophy? What does it solve?

[Cannot think of a name]

I've come across many philosophical threads on this forum before, and I must say none of it really seems to matter to me. I mean I really don't see how it's useful for anything. It doesn't seem interesting, nor does it appear to solve any big problems. So I ask you nsg, why do we need philosophy? What does it solve?

What do you want it to solve?

[Bogdanov Vishniac]

Philosophy lead to science, which lead to the computer you're using to decry philosophy's lack of practical use.

[Primitivist Jemaoi Aaja Aaja]

Philosophy lead to science, which lead to the computer you're using to decry philosophy's lack of practical use.

Yea that was a long time ago I'm guessing? If so it must have lost a purpose centuries ago.

[Primitivist Jemaoi Aaja Aaja]

I've come across many philosophical threads on this forum before, and I must say none of it really seems to matter to me. I mean I really don't see how it's useful for anything. It doesn't seem interesting, nor does it appear to solve any big problems. So I ask you nsg, why do we need philosophy? What does it solve?

What do you want it to solve?

Does it solve anything?

[Cannot think of a name]

What do you want it to solve?

Does it solve anything?

Does anything really get 'solved'?

[MERIZoC]

Your name suggests you're a primitivist, which would mean your ideology is very heavily entrenched in philosophy. Or is that not the case?

[The Liberated Territories]

Philosophy: who needs it?

You won't find any answers. So enjoy your time here on Earth. You are only here once.

[Bogdanov Vishniac]

]Yea that was a long time ago I'm guessing?

Why don't you go and find out? That is, if you'd prefer to do something useful (see what I did there?) instead of whining on the internet about things you're too lazy to even bother to look up.

[Iberonia]

Philosophy isn't bad in and of itself, but a lot of it is utterly meaningless to the average person, which is why so much of it is developed and refined by the upper classes of society. The hard sciences have always been separate of philosophy, and there is no valid claim that philosophy influenced the advance of them. Mathematics started as applied reason and evolved under the Greeks to include the conceptual/theoretical.

Philosophy (Western, that is) was just a product of the environment in the Classical era and would continue to evolve, but it would do so independent of the sciences. There are those who will defend philosophy as the foundation and beginning of the hard sciences, but that would be a desperate falsehood kindled by the realization that their field has no true relevance to the world outside of a sociological context, and even then much of it is impractical/unpalatable to most people.

About the most use derived from philosophy is the study of logic, and that content can be condensed and dispersed across many different sub-disciplines in mathematics.

[Wisconsin9]

What is this thread, if not philosophical?

[New Werpland]

Philosophy: who needs it?

You won't find any answers. So enjoy your time here on Earth. You are only here once.

I know that book.

I hope you aren't quoting Ayn Rand.

[Deuxtete]

I've come across many philosophical threads on this forum before, and I must say none of it really seems to matter to me. I mean I really don't see how it's useful for anything. It doesn't seem interesting, nor does it appear to solve any big problems. So I ask you nsg, why do we need philosophy? What does it solve?

You are currently engaging in a philosophical discussion on the intrinsic value of philosophy.
You answered yourself.

[The Liberated Territories]

Philosophy: who needs it?

You won't find any answers. So enjoy your time here on Earth. You are only here once.

I know that book.

I hope you aren't quoting Ayn Rand.

hehe

[Imperial Esplanade]

I've come across many philosophical threads on this forum before, and I must say none of it really seems to matter to me. I mean I really don't see how it's useful for anything. It doesn't seem interesting, nor does it appear to solve any big problems. So I ask you nsg, why do we need philosophy? What does it solve?

Annnnnd, you're using philosophy.

[Genivaria]

Does it solve anything?

Does anything really get 'solved'?

What is 'anything'?

[Wisconsin9]

Does anything really get 'solved'?

What is 'anything'?

That one problem on last night's algebra homework?

[New Ogunquit]

I've come across many philosophical threads on this forum before, and I must say none of it really seems to matter to me. I mean I really don't see how it's useful for anything. It doesn't seem interesting, nor does it appear to solve any big problems. So I ask you nsg, why do we need philosophy? What does it solve?

It gives us an outlet to ask questions like why we even need it.

[Sun Wukong]

What is 'anything'?

That one problem on last night's algebra homework?

Find X(istentialism)

[Genivaria]

That one problem on last night's algebra homework?

Find X(istentialism)

Oh well played sir. Well played.

[Cuprum]

Philosophy is the mother of all sciences, are you nuts?

Philosophy was the original inquiry into the nature of the world. (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc.) It combined what we'd now call 'science' with other aspects of reality, and asked all those questions. (So philosophers asked about the origin of the universe, what it was made of, what it was all for, what was ethical, etc., all in one package.)

[Olthar]

We have no need for philosophy. It just gets in the way of progress and scientific advancement. Like, why should anyone care if it's technically "unethical" or whatever that bullshit means. You're still holding back society when you prevent me from creating a race of hyper-intelligent cyborg ninjas!

[The Lacedaemonians]

It helps us cope! Depending on the structure of the philosophical model you follow, it can be either a mode of inquiry, or coping mechanism to help you make sense of existence. Or both.

[Ifreann]

Does it solve anything?

Does anything really get 'solved'?

What does it mean for something to be solved, in this context?

[Cuprum]

We have no need for philosophy. It just gets in the way of progress and scientific advancement. Like, why should anyone care if it's technically "unethical" or whatever that bullshit means. You're still holding back society when you prevent me from creating a race of hyper-intelligent cyborg ninjas!

It still preventing you from creating a feudal society in which slavery is legal and religious fanatics declare holy wars with more frequency. Deus vult!