Phyllo: You like to be vague and unclear.
K: I am asking questions that force people to think and often times they
resemble Rorschach test because the questions are a reflection of
what we think is or isn’t “good” philosophy… I am not trying to make it
fun or easily answered, I am trying to confront you with questions you have
never thought about and don’t know how to answer… I am trying to be the
“bad” conscience you should already have…if it looks “vague and unclear”,
I would suggest that is how you read the question and not at all how the
question is asked…
P: The more muddled the better because that shows you’re doing “profound” philosophy.
If you don’t have any answers, then you believe that you are as smart as Socrates.
K: I am doing profound philosophy… you ought to try it someday…
and as far as being as smart as Socrates, I have no idea who was smarter and
frankly I don’t care…
P: Well, I don’t think that’s philosophy at all. I think that the goal of philosophy is to get answers and the way to get answers is to be clear and focused. If you ask a precise question, then you may get an answer. If you ask a muddled question, then you won’t get anything useful.
K: having a muddle question is in the eye of the beholder… is the goal of philosophy
to get answers or…or is the goal of philosophy to gain knowledge of who we are…
Socrates said, “know thyself” and Nietzsche said, “become who you are”
where do the answers exist in those two maxims?
and as far as “getting anything useful”, you have to define, what is the useful?
P: Of course, an answer may still be beyond your reach or beyond the reach of any human.
[/quote]
K: and you punted… you simply said the question was too “vague and unclear” and then
you said the “answer may be beyond the reach of any human” and thus we don’t
need to bother ourselves with such things because the question was too vague and
beyond my reach… perhaps that is why you don’t know “profound” philosophy…
you reject questions that might be too hard to answer as “vague and unclear”
and “beyond my reach” whereas I relish those questions as being the type
of questions that demand attention…
I take the question “who are you” as a serious question that demands attention
from us and demands we pay attention to it because it is a fundamental question
about finding out who we are… in accordance to Socrates and Nietzsche…
you know… profound questions…
Kropotkin