Quote:
Originally Posted by TGS
Most academic philosophy has got nothing to do with how to live a better life, (it's not unique in that, most of what goes on in the humanities and social science, and quite a lot of what goes on in natural and theoretical science, is of no practical value - that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done though). I guess Alain de Botton is an exception to that - he does think philosophy - both as a process and in terms of its products - has the potential to make human life "better".
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I know, and that's why I didn't mention it
I said that the purpose of philosophy is to
help us make sense of life. By that I mean that it should help us think about the world and ourselves. If philosophy is a technical discipline, then how is it different from science? What is its purpose?
I know that philosophy and science were very close, almost indistinguishable, for a long time, but I'm not sure this is relevant now. Not that they shouldn't have anything to do with each other, on the contrary, they should be in constant dialogue, but they are different disciplines.
A technical vocabulary is useful for technical persons to communicate efficiently and precisely, but to the layman it is a barrier. I can understand the usefulness of technical words to philosophers, and I'm willing to learn some of the vocabulary, but if philosophy becomes so technical as to be restricted to a discussion between philosophers, what's the use of it?