(Go beyond a simple yes or no if you can).
some do
-Imp
I earn a living working in a philosophy department with a bunch of professors who earn a living teaching and writing grants. I don’t know if any of us are real philosophers, but we do make our money that way.
Do you think a ‘real philosopher’ has to make money at it in order to be a ‘real philosopher’?
No.
From dictionary.com
Philosopher: a person who offers views or theories on profound questions in ethics, metaphysics, logic, and other related fields
So, any person with an opinion on the great questions is a philosopher.
Also, it says one who offers their views, not profits from their views, so if a person is not offering his/her views at no charge, by this definition, that person may not be a philosopher.
As far as earning a living is concerned, I would say they are either teachers, professors, researchers, or earn their money in a completely unrelated fashion.
EDITED TO ADD: Also, one must consider Diogenes of Sinope, whose entire philosophy and all of his teachings centered around a return to animalism, and the avoidance of desire for possessions and material goals.
If you don’t already know about him, check this out:
Woah, Diogenes was one interesting fellow. I simpathize with his aim, allthough I don’t care for his cause.
That’s understandable. I can’t advocate a full return to animalism, though I have always loved, admired, and attempt to use the barter system, so I would strongly support an elimination of currency.
Besides, an elimination of currency would make the value of goods somewhat unmeasurable, the worth of a good would be whatever goods one was willing to give up to get the good. And, people would start being happy with having enough to survive.
Do you think that having something like gold coins as currancy bartering? Afterall, it is gold and not paper.
Mr. Smears answers this type of question once a month. Use the search function. I wish I could answer this question one day…
Without an official currency system, gold coins would lose a substantial portion of their value. Best to have pure gold that can be turned into jewelry.
I used to be on a motorcycle forum that had under the smiley section a bunch of smileys holding up a sign that said “search the forums dude”. We should get that here.
Like this thing here…
