Who Needs Philosophy

I hope you had the time and the inclination to enjoy the transcript at the link I posted.   http://www.tracyfineart.com/usmc/philosophy_who_needs_it.htm

I understand that many do not have the time to focus on such a comprehensive explanation of the topic.

So here's a shorter explanation of what philosophy is and why it's important to you. If this post grabs you, then you will certainly enjoy the time spent in reading the transcript I linked in the earlier post.

If you study sociology or psychology you will find that you need to understand a lot about a more basic field – human anatomy and physiology. As a young man I studied biology. It quickly became clear that a true understanding required knowledge of more basic fields like chemistry and physics. If you study chemistry and physics, you will soon find that there is another field you must study.

This is how acquiring knowledge works – each field builds on others. The most important truth about human knowledge is that it is all integrated, that is, that all human knowledge is interdependent.

This integration and interdependence point back to the field of philosophy. That is, (in this context) the study of those facts of existence and of human ways of thinking that are common to all other areas of knowledge.

Philosophy as a field of study has several topic-areas. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of existence and epistemology is the study of valid ways of thinking. I put these two, most basic areas, together because in the historic study of these ideas, a major confusion has existed between the “what is,” and the “how do we know it.” More on this in a later post. (This is a critical point you should attempt to remember in future posts, it is perhaps the most important issue underpinning modern motivations in ethical and political decisions).

If you are not going to engage in a comprehensive study of philosophy, an understanding of its basic areas of inquiry is best described in questions. “What do we know and how do we know it?”

This is the point at which it becomes clear that philosophy is important to you, whether you study it or not. The study of existence (metaphysics) and human thinking (epistemology) is the basis of the next two areas of philosophical study – ethics and politics.

Now STOP! This is the point of this essay. You may not have studied metaphysics and epistemology, but your teachers, professors, politicians, news media editors, religious, and social leaders have all studied them. When they make pronouncements in the areas of ethics and politics, it is based on their understanding of all of these areas of philosophy – metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics.

These people make decisions that effect you and those decisions are based on things they learn studying philosophy. If you know nothing of philosophy, then you are outside of the loop in terms of understanding the nature of the decisions made by leaders in your community and your country.

Over the next several months and perhaps years, I will dissect these ideas that are basic to ethics and politics – like physics or chemistry might be the basis of some idea in biology. I will tell you what is behind a political opinion and what is the history of thought on the basics. I hope you will comment. Should I continue?