What is the point of philosophy if we look at it academically…
Nietzsche believe in the “Ubermensh” and Plato believed in “eternal forms”
and Descartes believed in X and Hegel believed in Z…
this is no different then learning that the Magna Carta was signed in 1215…
it is just a fact and nothing more… part of the failure of philosophy is thinking
that philosophy is just knowing that Nietzsche believed in the “Ubermensh”
or that Plato believed in “eternal forms”… so what… what is the point of knowing
that? what is the value of knowing what Nietzsche believed or what is the point of
knowing what Plato believed…the value of knowing about Nietzsche’s Ubermensh is
what you do with that information… the value is how does the knowledge of
the ubermensh changes or affect you or changes how you view the world…
it is no longer enough to view philosophy academically, we must engage
philosophy personally, emotionally, with a view of how knowledge changes us…
philosophy: love of wisdom… love…love isn’t impartial and love isn’t passive
love isn’t academic…love is engaging with all your heart and soul and passion
into the object of your love… love is not a game for the meek or the passive…
love demands, demands we engage on all levels of our understanding…
intellectually, emotionally, physically and so is the same for philosophy…
knowledge, facts are in fact, boring… the sun is 93 million miles from earth…
a fact that has been known for a rather long time and that fact is boring…
but if we engage in finding that fact with passion… we change how we understand
that fact…we are 93 million miles from the sun and that puts us into the
goldilocks area of where water can maintain itself, not to hot, not to cold…
we exist because we are the right distance from the sun… 93 million miles…
that boring fact becomes something interesting now because it is one of the
reasons we exist… we can approach this fact with passion because we
exist because of this fact…we can engage in philosophy with the same
understanding that we function, in part, using philosophical idea’s and
understanding of the world…science is facts and philosophy is about values…
and we live in a value based world… we inquire into what
values are values we should have and what values are values we should share
with those who come after us… this is philosophy…inquiry into values,
pursuit of values…we quite often reverse the order of our understanding…
we act and then we try to understand the values of that action…
we should first work on our values, what value is right and then act…
for example, we have stated for decades with different presidents of different
parties that we believe in democracy, the shared valued that gives the power
to the people and we have acted upon that value… we understood that value
and then we acted upon that value…understanding comes first then actions…
and this applies to philosophy… we must understand first and then act…
so what understanding first you have that you act upon later?
this is the value of philosophy… understanding before action
but this understanding is done with passion and emotion, so the action
doesn’t need to be done with passion and emotion…
philosophy must engage us, not just on a intellectual level,
but on an emotional, passionate level… what philosophy engages
you on a emotional, passionate level?
Kropotkin