What's the ultimate purpose of Philosophy ?

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A friend of mine and me got into this discussion about what would be the reason and purpose for Philosophy.
Without going into details, I inmediately suggested that it's final purpose was to help Humanity at large to become a less suffering entity.What else should we -really- use knowledge for ?

He disagreed and his response was that philosophers search for truth. He added that philosophers look for the fundamental questions in life or otherwise and investigate as well as justify these answers with the least amount of assumptions.

Even though I agree with his very elementary answer,I could tell he didn't understand my premise.

Any comments ?

stillmind

"Man has been forced to vegetate in his primitive stupidity: he has been taught stories about invisible powers upon whom his happiness was supposed to depend. Religious opinions are ancient monuments of ignorance, credulity, cowardice, and, barbarism of their ancestors."

D. Hume

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I think the current purpose of philosophy is simply intellectual masturbation, as it solves nothing.

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I can see both sides of the issue. Philosophers do look to explore the basic questions of life. Their motivation might not be the alleviation of suffering-but the alleviation of suffering might very well be an effect of the investigation.

BTW, Stillmind, Welcome to A2K!

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Why do people write computer programs to find the highest known prime number? I'm sure the answers are related somehow...

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Philosophers ask the questions for science to answer.
Philosophers never answer any questions, just create more questions. A curious mind will always ask questions---the difficult task is finding suitable answers.

If there is no absolute truth-----I can understand why Nietzscke was so confused and died in a mental institution.

Why must man be content with temporary anwers?

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I think you all have it right.

My perception is that philosophy is a quest for truth. It is also a way to escape reality and question the fundamentals of life. This reasoning process seems like a form of meditation to me.
The sad part is that very few take the time to question why they do what they do....and I think society wants it that way. :wink:

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As a philosophos, Socrates was a supreme example. He loved wisdom. As he said, "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing."

gnothi seauton, as Socrates echoed the oracle at Apollo's temple at Delphi, "understand thyself."

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I think Philosophy is sort of a painkiller.When you're miserable with circumstances and people and wonder why they are, as they are,You make a philosophical statement out of it.That's, it has to be this way only.That you just discovered it!

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we all have instincs designed to give us the best chance of surviving and reproducing. If you get into a drunked DnM (deep and meaningful) you feel a fake sence of conpanionship. a strong bong cannot be formed in 1 conversation yet you feel close to this person. y? because survival in a group is parramount to the survival of the individual. If you are able to share your problems and recieve a sympathetic responce it appears as if you can use this person to achieve common goals and finaly the surval of self is improved. What is the purpose of philosophy? i belive it is to try to make others understand you, live in the same world as you to achieve greater quality of life.

just me saying that is me doing what was just mentioned above.

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I had a roommate once named Phil O'Sophy. Irish fellow. Drank a lot, left his dirty socks all over the place, and expected me to clean up his mess. Well, that was just how it was with Phil O'Sophy. I completely concur with skotup1 that "a strong bong cannot be formed in 1 conversation." Laughing

Please don't correct that, it's the funniest typo I've seen in a while, and laughter is the key to happiness. Wink

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perception wrote:

Philosophers ask the questions for science to answer.
Philosophers never answer any questions, just create more questions. A curious mind will always ask questions---the difficult task is finding suitable answers.

My thoughts precisely.

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I always thought that the philosopher's job was to question answers, not to answer questions.

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rufio has a point there, but it depends on the school of philosophy. Philosophers can either question what may be termed "answers" or more specifically "truth", or defend the status quo.

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Re: stillmind (Post 478356)

Philosophy's ultimate reason and purpose...

The ultimate purpose of philosophy is self destruction.

When they've figured it all out they can never philosophize again... Smile

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Re: Cyracuz (Post 3358630)

Very good, but perhaps the "ultimate purpose" of philosophy (qua search for reality/truth) is a form of liberation which amounts to a kind of positive self-destrustion. When one "awakens" in this manner s/he need not philosophize again--except, perhaps, for the sheer pleasure of it.

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Re: Cyracuz (Post 3358630)

philosophy want to know what the world and man really is ,since science and religion can't give us the answer.

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Even if it were possible, I'm not sure it's necessary or desirable to come up with a single, "ultimate" purpose of philosophy. Why not allow it to have several purposes?

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Re: Shapeless (Post 3442912)

I think the purpose (if there is one) of philosophy is best described as an attempt to ask those questions which do yield proveable, sensible answers which advance Human understanding of the world in which we live.

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Re: rhymer (Post 3491354)

Sadly philosophers tended to sit on their behinds and seek answers when they should be conducting experiments which scientists do to find whatever they seek. We can only find partial answers as we have limited capabilities. Our eyes are the most accurate sensing organs yet sight is limited so we use telescopes and microscopes to observe things. As the photon alters the orbit of an electron we cannot observe the orbit or the position of an electron. That is the limit.

What's the ultimate purpose of Philosophy ?

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