Big Think

Brokk Svendsen on January 16, 2008, 11:39 AM

I think philosophy will play a large part in the de-religification (i just made up a word) of the world, people are slowly realising that the religion they believe in is nonsense, yet others are joining religions they werent raised into, im not an aetheist but established religion is an ancient and tired answer to the universe and to morality, philosophy is the key

Kyle Hall on January 16, 2008, 7:58 PM

as much as i enjoy philosophy i feel that as we develop into a more sophisticated society we are destroying any place for conventional philosophy. We have very few things in life now that cannot in some way be classified or analyzed. it is only uncertainties that raise questions. it is more specifically language that is restricting the rise of philosophy. The more words we can create the more defined our world is becoming. We need to tear down what we know and what is being made to make way for new radical thinking. It’s said that without language a human cannot properly think. We need to rid ourselves of these confines of words to open ourselves up to new ways of imagining. We our restricted to imagining things that we can verbalize. I want to imagine something I can’t talk about.

nancy mathews on January 16, 2008, 10:23 PM

i agree with the previous posters, in spirit. i hope that the role of philosophy in the 21st century will be to re-examine the history and role of morality/morals over time (not religious beliefs.)

Jordan S.Y. on January 17, 2008, 12:26 AM

Contrary to the last two suggestions, the scope and depth of questions that must be approached “philosophically” seems to be expanding, rather than contracting. Concepts that are fundamentally philosophical such as human rights, global justice, environmental ethics, and biomedical ethics have only begun to enter the discourse within the past half-century.

Never before have we had to ask what our individual and collective responsibilities are that follow from a commitment to universal human rights. Never before have we had to ask about the extent to which we can push genetic manipulation before we can reasonably talk about “post-humanism”. Where we find ourselves as a species will largely depend on how we answer these types of questions, and it is philosophers that exist to consider our available answers.

Indeed, it looks to me like the future of philosophy is bright.

Brandon Fennell on January 17, 2008, 1:27 PM

When we reference Philosophy it usual always conjures up thoughts of Socrates, Aristotle and those of the past. We do not have modern day Philosophers by any means, it would seem that sitting around discussing the issues that make us spiritual creatures is not productive in todays materialistic world. It is quite evident that the role of philosophy will be once again, the need for answer to the soul(without religion)is screaming at us from all directions but I feel that we are not entirely ready as our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.

Garrett A on January 17, 2008, 8:05 PM

Philosophy has always been for those willing to step into the void science has yet to fill.

Many philosophers are also mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, etc. Before Aristotle philosophy was science. It is the love of thought—of theorizing.

Philosophers such as Heidegger influenced how physicists now view time. Wherever there may be unanswerable questions whether in quantum physics or ethics, philosophers will be there generating theories that help push us out of whatever paradigm we are stuck in.

Modern philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze have many interesting things to say about metaphysics as well as critiques about philosophy as a whole.

Denise Lesko on January 18, 2008, 2:09 PM

I agree with those of you who seem to be saying that philosophy today is really a combination of analysis and interpretation of the present, as well as psychoanalysis of the reasoning behind it. We are an ever evolving species, so philosophy, however you label it, is as important today as it was in ancient civilizations.

Lucas Trammell on January 20, 2008, 1:04 AM

I feel that the majority of the above posts are flawed in one major way. They assign philosophy to be the study thereof, not the act of philosophising itself. They pigeonhole philosophy into the academic study of past philosophers and the subjects they broached, and ignore that which is and always has been the essence of philosophy; the thinking about and discussion of ideas and concepts that ‘modern’ science can only guess at. I argue that the foremost philosophers of this age go under different titles, such as ‘theoretical physicist’, etc. However they are titled, the actions they take redefine the mechanics of the world we live in, and their ideas define how our children will be tought. After all, didn’t the roots of what we call science… nay, even the methods we all still use today to define truth from unbased theory, so called scientific method, come to us directly from the so called ‘natural philosophers’ who founded the Royal academy, and revolutionized how we (humans) percived our experience in the world today? (think sir francis drake, sir issac newton just to name a few)

Tin Do on January 20, 2008, 8:19 PM

It is true that very little nowadays cannot be analysed and categorized; this is only evidence of our exceedingly growing prowess in rational thought. However, this is only one mode of thought, existing alongside thought of a more spiritual and abstract nature. In our pursuit of rationality, we have neglected this other mode of thought which has lead to irreligiousness and, in turn, the stagnation of culture and the general apathy abundant in modern society. Thus, Philosophy is not becoming obsolete in this increasingly materialistic society of ours: it is becoming neglected, though crucial, i believe, in restoring the ‘soul’ our society has lost; a soul that has inspired man, and driven progress and growth since time immemorial.

A Co on January 22, 2008, 5:40 PM

Philosophy is just people thinking, I don’t think it really ever was done for any other reason. There will always be philosophy because there is always more to think about.

Denys Artasevych on January 25, 2008, 2:46 AM

The purpouse of al the sciences, and most religions is to answer questions. The purpouse of philosophy my friend is to ask those questions. Hence the future of philosophy is whatever philosophers decite is worth asking. What all this questioning does is it helps us emerge out of ignorance.

Kath Sayles on January 29, 2008, 5:44 PM

Most people in the world are fully occupied with the business of survival and feeding their families. Philosophy always was, and always will be, the elitist pastime of those of us with time on our hands. It has never solved anything and it never will. I studied philosophy in my university days. The greatest thinkers I knew there were also those most isolated from the realities of life. In cloud-cuckoo land, frankly.

Roger Hunt on January 31, 2008, 9:59 AM

Some interesting thoughts. The basic responses seem to be (1)‘philosophy is useless’ (2)‘philosophy is an entertaining past time’ (3)‘Philosophy has run its course’ and (4)‘we still need philosophy’.

First off, the Philosophy Department at Universities are virtually non-existent. Oxford incorporated its philosophy department into it Political department, most phil depts are part of history or religion departments; U Canterbury is subsuming philosophy under the politics and communication department. Whatever benefits we may find in philosophy, universities are losing that vision, and perhaps rightly so. General philosophical problems can be talked about in terms of other disciplines. Consciousness – neuroscience and cognitive science (though there is probably sufficient disagreement that philosophers could have something interesting to say); God – well theology is not a field anymore as post modernism and literary theory is making the only interesting theoretical contributions; free will – a subject of evolutionary psychology; aesthetics and ethics – evolutionary psychology is taking over; language, though that is a quasi-philosophical problem as direct study of it as a phenomenon rather than an instrument is recent and is studied in linguistic and psychology departments. Cosmology (the origin of the universe and the character of reality) – philosophy has developed a system for dealing with this: physics. Theoretical physics is philosophy , and just like philosophy there are two basic camps, rationalists (mathematical physics) and empiricists (astronomy). Just as Kant blended Descartes and Lockes so too is mathematical physics and astronomy blended today. History of philosophical thought is all that is left. This does not mean the history of philosophy, historians are trained to handle that field. History of philosophical thought gives students the ability to understand the ideas of the ancient and recent philosophers in terms of their arguments and disputes as genuine, rather than a product of their time when other methods of investigation were unknown. For example, understanding Locke’s criticism of Descartes as a genuine argument, rather than simply being able to identify the general dispute and arguments. Hmm…ok. What I mean is this: being able to imagine oneself into the position of Locke desperately trying to understand Descartes, failing, then coming to the conclusion that Descartes is wrong and subsequently taking a new approach to the same basic problems. Philosophy may become a discipline of imaginative reconstruction, rather than a discipline of theorizing for the sake of answering questions. Along with this skill, philosophy becomes the area in a University where the most general (though in depth) practice of studying ideas takes place. So, in biology you may study a little Darwin, but you basically focus on training yourself to take cultures and reconstruct DNA strands. Part of your education as a biologist is to goto the philosophy department and learn the foundations of your field. Only someone trained in philosophy – someone who has imagined herself into Darwin’s situation – will be able to give the biology student an education which will benefit him as a biologist. Philosophy becomes the preservation of human thinking, rather than a commenter on or forger of new fields. Therefore, philosophers still require training in philosophy; furthermore philosophy departments need to exist and be filled with trained philosophers.

brian kingsley on February 2, 2008, 12:12 AM

Currently, I believe the most important task of philosophy is provide dissenting voices, people like Nietzsche, Marx, Heidegger, and Foucault provide an counter balance to the status quo. Without dissent our democracy is in trouble.

Jesse Akers on February 26, 2008, 11:33 AM

purely rational thinkers like einstein?? You need to read the book by einstein IDEAS AND OPNIONS, and you will get a better knowledge of how rational his philosphy was

also i think the next great debate in philosphy will derive over the use of pharmeceuticals to treat behavioral disorders and depression, from a man well ahead of his time Stanly Kubrick wrote and directed A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, if you have not see it you MUST…
if you want my interpertation of the modern medical/pharmeceutical debaccle please see my upcoming thread(in the next couple days) BIOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTLISM-THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN PHARMECEUTICALS AND THEIR PRESCRIBERS

Philosphy-like god-should be subtle and great-simple yet beautiful- abstract but as close to tangible as you can get