Thread: Nothing Is Real

their I hope this answers all the questions anybody ever had about philosophy.

ever been in a philosophy class? Well I hope you haven't, because its a load of shit. Philosophy is something learned from observing and simplifying our world by using relativity until you fucking realize.

I've been in a philosophy class, and you know what I realized? The only people who need it are too caught up in their petty lives as slaves, and don't have the time to open their mind, or fucked up when they had the chance. Ancient philosophy even skips the motion of science, and is just a rule book with out proof.

If nothing is real, and nothing is right or wrong, than you have understood philosophy.

Well, yes, I have been in a few Philosophy classes in my time - I'm in the last year of completing my English/philosophy major at uni. And a lot of the time philosophy can seem pointless, especially analytic philosophy which constantly picks apart arguments and invents new positions and new distinctions until you wonder what the original point was.

But to say that philosophy simply holds that 'nothing is real' or is based upon mere statements without attempting to find any proof is to miss the whole point of philosophy in the first place.

What philosophy does is act as a science of ideas. Philosophy takes our everyday notions of certain concepts and then analyses them to find out what we mean when we use these concepts. For example, what do we really mean when we use the concept of freedom? Is it simply that we 'could have done otherwise' or is it that we can 'do whatever we want.' Philosophy then seeks to determine what the implications of our concepts are - if we think that freedom is that we 'could have done otherwise,' how does this fit in with a deterministic universe?

I guess the most frustrating part of philosophy is the fact that definite answers are never found - the very job of philosophers is to take concepts and ideas that we think are solid, and find paradoxes, inconsistencies and problematic implications inherent in them. In this way, it seeks to provide us with a systematic view of the world, whereby our total knowledge contains no logical inconsistencies. Inconsistencies are undesirable - obviously if I thought that all mammals are warm blooded, yet I thought that humans were cold-blooded, there would be a pretty big inconsistency that I would need to deal with.

The hardest part of philosophy is that, to understand many of these arguments you have to study a LOT of philosophy. Because philosophers have been working pretty hard for a long time, there are hundreds of different positions on arguments, each with implications on other positions. For example, if I am a reductive physicalist, then it is hard to see how I can be a dualist. If I am a reductive physicalist, my position on topics such as conscious experience are going to take a certain form. The aim, when doing philosophy, is to work out which positions you agree with, and try to fit them in with the rest of your beliefs. The best philosophy is done by challenging seemingly solid concepts, and forcing a new position to be taken; The Gettier Problem, for example, was a three page article - very short by philosophical standards - that completely blew apart the idea that all knowledge has to be is a justified, true belief.

In short, philosophy is done by offering answers to the problems with our ideas of the world. It then takes those answers and makes them problematic.

It may seem pointless, but in the end it enriches our understanding of who we are and our role in the world around us.

no, listen here, you understand something, but you are sort of contradicting your self. I do take things apart, but when you do the answer is always karma. Nothing is broken, everything is broken? You think that is a contradiction maybe, and it is, but its something both sides are tugging at endlessly, and there is never a winner or a loser. thats what karma means. To fully understand anyone's ideas ideas about life, etc, you have to live it, believe it, see it.

Philosophy class can't teach you that part, and if you don't understand that part then you don't belong in philosophy, and if you understand that part, you don't need philosophy class. Everything is as complex as it is simple. Atoms electrons, thats all everything is. So what if person A has taken chemistry, they don't teach you the destroying beauty of the abstractness that you find in these areas.

if you agree with one philosophy and not the other, then the comprehension is limited, anything is possible, ask the guy in the mental hospital. opening your eyes is what is important, and philosophy cannot teach you that.

It helps teach you the basic skills by giving you a structured environment for learning and discussion, and you are introduced to new ideas and ways of thinking during the course. True, it doesn't teach you the difficult part of philosophy, the opening of your mind and the ability to see the limits of your own reality and the subsequent expansion of your perception, among other things. It doesn't teach you how to really see an argument or position, to see truth and the beauty of logic and understanding. It simply teaches the words and formulas and ideas, but those are important in themselves, even if they will still need to be "filled in" by personal understanding. Perhaps one is better off forcing himself to learn them through focused meditation, but not everyone has the interest to do that.

So, I think it serves as a good introduction for those that have never really given much thought to reflection and logic. And if part of the course is to force the students to truly start to think and reason beyond dry calculation of concepts, then all the much better. Everyone can swim, but most don't learn on their own. Showing how enjoyable and enriching the process of philosophy can be creates the impetus for further self development, and explaining and focusing on the basics of logic and thought gives the student the honed tools they will need for proper progression. And, again, simply having that forum and that structure can be a lot in itself.



I'll add a bit: I've found my life to be a sort of reverse-engineering of my schooling: taking the concepts that have been given to me and then working back from that to find the full implications and the realization of their truths. I don't think that makes my schooling worthless, as I do have those concepts and ideas to work with. I would wish they would teach us the importance and beauty of knowledge for its own sake, and the joy of perception and understanding, but that's something that by its nature can't be easily taught with words, and there are few that experience it fully themselves to the extent that they could properly instill the spirit of learning in others.

I think philosophy has some use. In my case it helped me to question things about life that led to me having more awareness of myself and the world around me. For that purpose i think philosophy can be a potent and useful source of learning. However, i would contribute that more to the process of philosophising, rather than using philosophy as an academic pursuit.

And everybody philosophises, you were philosophising by creating this thread, dylanshmai. At the end of the day it doesn't really help in gaining certainties about life, but it does help people explore possibilities of life and as a result change their lives. Philosophy is a tool, not a religion or a science. It's not a way of life, it's a way through life.


I know i'm a much better place in life for having familiarised myself with this idea of mental exploration. I do agree that life is about experiencing and living and not sitting around intellectualising on subjects for the sake of it, or wading through books to try and figure your life out, that's a waste of time. I just think philosophy naturally goes hand in hand with real experience.

Originally Posted by Ardent Lost

I think philosophy has some use. In my case it helped me to question things about life that led to me having more awareness of myself and the world around me. For that purpose i think philosophy can be a potent and useful source of learning. However, i would contribute that more to the process of philosophising, rather than using philosophy as an academic pursuit.

And everybody philosophises, you were philosophising by creating this thread, dylanshmai. At the end of the day it doesn't really help in gaining certainties about life, but it does help people explore possibilities of life and as a result change their lives. Philosophy is a tool, not a religion or a science. It's not a way of life, it's a way through life.


I know i'm a much better place in life for having familiarised myself with this idea of mental exploration. I do agree that life is about experiencing and living and not sitting around intellectualising on subjects for the sake of it, or wading through books to try and figure your life out, that's a waste of time. I just think philosophy naturally goes hand in hand with real experience.

yeah. that's what I was trying to express.