[Icare dixit]

The mind is an interesting, amazing thing.

Are you interested in philosophy? Which philosophers in particular and why?

Do you think it helps you in any way?

Do you think philosophers need to be (or have been) crazy, being so wise or asking questions no one thought of?

I think the works (or teachings) of Spinoza, Berkeley, Kant, Descartes, Plato (about Socrates), the Stoics and many mystics, among others, are essential reading (at least about their works/ideas or at least different philosophical perspectives) and all were at least different from most in more than one way.

[leejosepho]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

The mind is an interesting, amazing thing.

Are you interested in philosophy?

Is there a relationship between the two?

I was in High School the first time someone asked about my personal philosophy and I had no idea what he was asking about. I do occasionally enjoy reading various things said by various philosophers, but I have yet to have an answer for my friend's question.

[Icare dixit]

Yes, lots of philosophy deals with the mind, perception, knowledge and mood.

A personal philosophy could be a motto, an affirmation or an entire belief system.

[franz kafka]

I'm partial to Wittgenstein and the line of philosophy he inspired. But yea... in my line of "work" (grad school) we deal a whole lot with philosophy.

[Icare dixit]

Originally Posted by franz kafka

I'm partial to Wittgenstein and the line of philosophy he inspired. But yea... in my line of "work" (grad school) we deal a whole lot with philosophy.

Oh, yes! (certainly not all flavours of relativism/postmodernism, though; not the "anything goes" kind)

The early or later Wittgenstein?

As a linguist, how could I forget.

[leejosepho]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Yes, lots of philosophy deals with the mind, perception, knowledge and mood.

I think I would get lost in trying to figure out which was trying to intellectualize any of the other. So personally, and while thinking of altruism, maybe I am more pragmatic than philosophical.

[21stCenturySM]

I like plato,Socrates,Descartes,Neitzsche, and Wittgenstein the best.

[21stCenturySM]

I just got done with an advanced philosophy class. Got an A. Go me!

[21stCenturySM]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Oh, yes! (certainly not all flavours of relativism/postmodernism, though; not the "anything goes" kind)

The early or later Wittgenstein?

As a linguist, how could I forget.

For me it's the later Wittgenstein. Like in philosophical investigations he pretty much negates his early work and sums Kant's entire career up in one sentence.

[Icare dixit]

Originally Posted by 21stCenturySM

For me it's the later Wittgenstein. Like in philosophical investigations he pretty much negates his early work and sums Kant's entire career up in one sentence.

Yes, I thought as much.

It's about integrating all those ideas. But later Wittgenstein would have said that's impossible, like Kuhn. There's no absolute truth in that. It's self-defeating to think otherwise.

Anyway, Wittgenstein too was clearly crazy. So was Kant. But Wittgenstein more of the self-contradictory kind.

Both very authentic.

[21stCenturySM]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Yes, I thought as much.

It's about integrating all those ideas. But later Wittgenstein would have said that's impossible, like Kuhn. There's no absolute truth in that. It's self-defeating to think otherwise.

Anyway, Wittgenstein too was clearly crazy. So was Kant. But Wittgenstein more of the self-contradictory kind.

Both very authentic.

Yeah, he was pretty crazy

[franz kafka]

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Oh, yes! (certainly not all flavours of relativism/postmodernism, though; not the "anything goes" kind)

The early or later Wittgenstein?

As a linguist, how could I forget.

Later Wittgenstein, but more than that I'm interested in people inspired by him, like Cora Diamond or Stanley Cavell.

[wiretwister]

always remember it has been said ... " I think therefore I am " ... so a rock does not exist ... it's not nice to think too much ...

[21stCenturySM]

Originally Posted by wiretwister

always remember it has been said ... " I think therefore I am " ... so a rock does not exist ... it's not nice to think too much ...

Descartes said that. But a rock still has a magnetic field, therefore it exists. He meant he had sentience.

Chapters in my book I'm 70% done with.

Contents
Preface
1. The Logos
2. The Wrath of Achilles
3. Odysseus’ Return
4. Café Metaphysics
5. The Illuminating Lamp of History
6. Socrates on the Examined Life
7. Philosophy the Crucible of Criticism
8. Meno and Can Virtue Be Taught
9. A Friend in Phaedrus
10. The Allegory of the Cave
11. The Symposium and the Ladder of Love
12. Aristotle and Moral Virtues
13. Aristotle on Friendships
14. Aristotle and the Divine Life
15. Hamletian Indecision
16. Milton’s Paradise Lost
17. David Hume: The Great Sceptic
18. Thomas Reid: The Father of Scottish Common Sense Philosophy
19. Immanuel Kant and the Pure Intuitions
20. The Romantic Rebellion
21. Blake Breaking our Bonds
22. Lyrical Ballads
23. Frankenstein’s Creature
24. The Faustian Bargain
25. Tennyson’s In Memoriam
26. Thus, Spoke Nietzsche
27. Matthew Arnold: Literature and Science
28. The Radical William James: The Psychologist’s Philosopher
29. William James: The Principles of Psychology and The Briefer Course
30. Semester One: The Shadow
31. Semester Two: The Break
32. Semester Three: Like Water Running Through My Fingers
33. Conclusion: Reflections in the Darkness

Originally Posted by franz kafka

I'm partial to Wittgenstein and the line of philosophy he inspired. But yea... in my line of "work" (grad school) we deal a whole lot with philosophy.

Wittgenstein's biggest influence was William James.

I have a book a book titled "Wittgenstein's Psychology" Its pretty good.
My focus in philosophy is philosophy of psychology with a special interest in mind. Wittgenstein and his beetle in the box parable is a great counter to strong AI. His natural language theory is very much akin to Thomas Reid's own.

Originally Posted by Icare dixit

Yes, I thought as much.

It's about integrating all those ideas. But later Wittgenstein would have said that's impossible, like Kuhn. There's no absolute truth in that. It's self-defeating to think otherwise.

Anyway, Wittgenstein too was clearly crazy. So was Kant. But Wittgenstein more of the self-contradictory kind.

Both very authentic.

He was a very depressed man. It ran in the family. Kant was a very analytic mind. He was like an engineer of how we reconstruct reality in order to perceive it. Neuroscience has a thing or two to learn from him.

As for Kuhn's anti-realist position in science, I take a more common sense van fraassen view. It's a mixture of realist verse anti-realist. We can't be totally skeptical.

I thought of adding Wittgenstein but his material is copyrighted. Plus he isn't very approachable. He was original though. I can't swallow the linguistic turn completely however. The guy had a knack for phrases. The limits of our language is the limits of our world. Philosophy as a tool box. To find the fly the way out of the bottle. Great stuff.

[duckrabbit]

I study philosophy as an undergrad (also creative writing and gender studies). I love Wittgenstein (as you can infer from my name--primarily Tractatus, but Philosophical Investigations is particularly useful). When I first read Tractatus it felt like I was reading poetry. Similar to clarice lispectors poetry-fiction--I highly recommend. I developed a theory of truth, based on wittgenstein and whitehead, that I am writing for my senior thesis (which is due in 3 days). I'm specifically interested in the intersection of this theory with art (especially poetry) but any creation or discovery.

When it comes to the questions of being crazy, asking these questions of the world, I'm not completely sure. I do think that much of my "insanity" derives from the way I see the world (philosophically/logically) and the specific worldview that I adapted after reading tractatus and synthisizing that with process philosophy. Every step felt different. (sorry for the spelling, it's been bad lately).

[Icare dixit]

I don't know who (if any of them) was really crazy crazy, or just a bit crazy, like most in academia are to some extent. They were at least different.

But what's interesting is that many thought about the relationship between what we perceive and what is (or should or may be considered) reality. Kant is very interesting in that respect, but also Plato (and Descartes and many others). Spinoza was a bit of a mystic, arguably very much so.

I think all good science should be based on some philosophy and I agree the ideas of Kant may inspire interesting theories about the brain, it can rather easily be used to come up with scientific theories, hypotheses. It's more easily refuted, falsified, than many other philosophies, probably. But that doesn't make other philosophies less relevant.

[Icare dixit]

And Wittgenstein's language games are very interesting in relation to psychosis, where you might not understand what you've written previously or you make no sense to others when you're in a different mental state.

[Ripose]

Personally I prefer the philosophy of Calvin & Hobbes.

Well, I am partial to Dr Christensen - but he is my father and I am pretty biased, haha.

I grew up with philosophy. It was something I grew up with discussing at the dinner table.

I don't think it much matters who your favourite is. The key thing about exposing yourself to philosophy is that it encourages/trains you to think critically.

My real favourite? Descarte who postulated reality. "cogito ego sum" (I think, therefore I am).

I am definitely not a fan of the racism and bigotry espoused by Nietzche. However, his theory regarding the anthropomorphism of God has stuck with me. This theory is basically that it isn't that God created man in his own image but rather that man created God in his.

[wiretwister]

Originally Posted by Ripose

Personally I prefer the philosophy of Calvin & Hobbes.

finally a man of the people ...

[pirilin]

Was a fan of Adam Smith when I was in biz. Now Walt Disney.