Quote:
Originally Posted by TimMason
Philosophy is an umbrella term: Science, Religion, Morality are all sheltered beneath it.
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No;
parasol, brolly, rainshade, sunshade, gamp and
bumbershoot are umbrella terms!
Sorry, frivolity mode disengaged.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimMason
Science was at first referred to as 'Natural Philosophy'; how what we call 'science' today developed out of that is a long story, and indeed a rather tangled one. Some would claim that science had its beginnings in the philosophy of Ancient Greece, while others would say that science really begins in the Renaissance.
Philosophy among the Greeks was a very practical matter; it included knowledge of the world, knowledge of the gods, knowledge of humans and how to persuade them to agree with you - a very important practical matter in democracies such as Athens. Philosophers wanted to live by and through their philosophies. Today's philosophers may inhabit the crumbling towers of the academy, but that's probably because they were displaced by churches, on the one hand, and the sciences on the other.
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I've always considered the first and primary goal of philosophy to be to answer the question, "How then shall we live?" Certainly there is more to philosophy than that, and many of the things addressed by one or another branch or sub-branch of philosophy have nothing to do whatsoever with that question; but of all the questions to which it seeks answers, I consider that to be the most important. Perhaps that's why I'm especially drawn to that branch of philosophy that deals primarily with Ethics. It's also why I find myself so disappointed with philosophers whose personal lives are anything but shining role models of virtuous lives.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimMason
However, perhaps we are looking in the wrong place for our philosophers. The most canny of philosophers is a good plumber.
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There's much to be said for that! It's better to be a loving, caring, decent human being with smelly hands than a brilliant but bitter academic with a disdain for his or her fellow humans.
That's not to say, of course, that one can't a loving, caring, decent, and brilliant academic!
BTW, Einstein was made an
honorary member of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union when he stated that if he could have chosen any other career path than the one he followed, he would have enjoyed being a plumber!