Philosophers think they know it all - they are never wrong.

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Well well.

I've had an interesting day. I could have left a knife on the table and sat around for it to plunge into my back, thats how I feel right now. I don't take philisophy too seriously it's good for the sayings and that but it's pointless. It's full of people who think they know it all if you enter a discussion with one it never ends! Everything you try and say is never right. I'm done with this rubbish, it really is a load of nonsence. We are people at the end of the day, we have lives to live a touch of philosophy is good for us all but for people of bang on about it all day are icolating themselfs. Sad really.

Well it's been good while it lasted. I do appreciate the help that has been given to me and I thank those who have helped.

I would give it another 24 hours and my account will be gone forever.

Happy discussion. But I have a life to live and I aint got no time to argue about it.

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@The Joker006,

Um, okay.

There is far more here than Philosophy.

And did not Socrates say, "The unexamined life is not worth living"?

If someone thinks they know it all, they are surely mistaken.

And, overdue for a swat on the keister.

1 Reply

@The Joker006,

I always find it puzzling when people seem to think that they were forced into thinking about philosophy, or even that they were forced to participate on a philosophy forum. No one would send a farewell to a stamp-collecting forum, or to a chemistry forum like that. What makes people think that they are obliged to think about philosophy, and makes them so resentful when they find that they don't like it, and don't want to do it? Millions of people spend their lives without thinking about philosophy, or even knowing what it is all about. So why the resentment? What I think is true is that some people, knowing nothing about philosophy, had some vague uninformed beliefs about what philosophy was about, and then when they discovered that philosophy was not what they thought it was, and that they did not like, or were unable to do, what philosophy is, they
felt somehow betrayed. But no one betrayed them, they were simply ignorant, and certainly no one compelled them to think about philosophy. So, I ask again. Why the bitterness and resentment? As the King of Siam said, "It is a puzzlement".

By the way, I simply don't understand the title of this thread. Where did he get the idea that philosophers think "they know it all". If anything, philosophy is generally identified with Socrates who (a little disingenuously- it is true) claimed that the only thing he knew was that he knew nothing. It is a puzzlement.

2 Replies

@The Joker006,

Rhys Arnold wrote:

Well well.

I've had an interesting day. I could have left a knife on the table and sat around for it to plunge into my back, thats how I feel right now. I don't take philisophy too seriously it's good for the sayings and that but it's pointless. It's full of people who think they know it all if you enter a discussion with one it never ends! Everything you try and say is never right. I'm done with this rubbish, it really is a load of nonsence. We are people at the end of the day, we have lives to live a touch of philosophy is good for us all but for people of bang on about it all day are icolating themselfs. Sad really.

Well it's been good while it lasted. I do appreciate the help that has been given to me and I thank those who have helped.

I would give it another 24 hours and my account will be gone forever.

Happy discussion. But I have a life to live and I aint got no time to argue about it.

It is as though you have never learned the most basic points of punctuation... Certainly, when and if you speak to people, your sentences do not all run together??? If people would write like they talk they would have very few problems, even though with verbal communication there is a lot of non verbal feed back, smiling, nodding, shaking of the head, looking away nevously for the guys with the rubber truck...

Consider that knowledge is an essential part of philosophy, and that before one can make rational judgements they must ahve some knowledge upon which to judge, so it is not an insult to call a philosopher a know it all...There is clearly too much to learn for anyone to know it all... Look at Durrant and wife who spent their lives learning it all and giving it to the world in their massive set on the history of civilization... And a book may take you a month to read, but then pick up another volume, and see the guy aged 20 years, and it sort of takes you back to what effort is involved in actually learning it all... Learning enough to make some sort of judgement call is one thing, but learning enough to teach, to answer questions, and to form a conception of a subject all laid out is another thing entirely...

You know, I am not too old, 56, and in many respects uneducated, and certainly undereducated... But from my vantage point I do not see how any young person would expect to be a philosopher... It takes time to learn, and it take time to observe self, and others, in life experence... It is a given, at least on my part that we are always wrong, that the closest anyone can come to telling truth is fiction... That does not mean we should not express what we think we know without hesitation, and as clearly as possible... Leave it to others to prove you wrong.... Give them the same courteousy... Prove them wrong... Consider it a favour...

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@kennethamy,

I would agree with Plato's Socrates, that he did Know nothing, at least about the essentials of morality/ethics...

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@jespah,

jespah wrote:

Um, okay.

There is far more here than Philosophy.

And did not Socrates say, "The unexamined life is not worth living"?

If someone thinks they know it all, they are surely mistaken.

And, overdue for a swat on the keister.

The examined life isn't worth any more to its owner than the unexamined life... No one willingly parts with their life, which is the proof we need, if we need it, that life is the only show in town... Enjoy it while you got it, and understand that everyone pays for their life with their life... Since we pay so much to have what we have, to enjoy what we enjoy, to eschew what we eschew, why not go first class, and endure as much as we can endure, -experience it all to the maximun... Be like Faustus, and never say enough...

0 Replies

@The Joker006,

Rhys Arnold wrote:

Well well.

I've had an interesting day. I could have left a knife on the table and sat around for it to plunge into my back, thats how I feel right now. I don't take philisophy too seriously it's good for the sayings and that but it's pointless. It's full of people who think they know it all if you enter a discussion with one it never ends! Everything you try and say is never right. I'm done with this rubbish, it really is a load of nonsence. We are people at the end of the day, we have lives to live a touch of philosophy is good for us all but for people of bang on about it all day are icolating themselfs. Sad really.

Well it's been good while it lasted. I do appreciate the help that has been given to me and I thank those who have helped.

I would give it another 24 hours and my account will be gone forever.

Happy discussion. But I have a life to live and I aint got no time to argue about it.

This may not be "philosophy proper", but during times when life seemed unbearable and pointless, I turned to a mantra I once read in Dag Hammarskjold's diary "Markings" -- "In this life, only one feat is possible: not to have run away." Now towards the end of my natural life, with its share of happiness and disappointments, including the accumulation of a bit of worthwhile knowledge (some of which came from philosophy), I've decided that would be a fitting epitaph on my tombstone: I did not run away.

rebecca

0 Replies

@kennethamy,

kennethamy wrote:

No one would send a farewell to a stamp-collecting forum, or to a chemistry forum like that.

You may be surprised. Lots of people like to make dramatic forum exits (they also tend to be people who come back out of retirement very quickly) and the topic of the forum doesn't really matter, it's about them. It's like the suicide note of forums and you'll find it everywhere.

2 Replies

@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

kennethamy wrote:
No one would send a farewell to a stamp-collecting forum, or to a chemistry forum like that.

You may be surprised. Lots of people like to make dramatic forum exits (they also tend to be people who come back out of retirement very quickly) and the topic of the forum doesn't really matter, it's about them. It's like the suicide note of forums and you'll find it everywhere.

We have had some classic "I shake your dust from my sandals" exits here.

As Robert says, usually many times from the same users.

I wish I could find some way to find the most dramatic here.

It's kind of a weird art form in itself.

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@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

kennethamy wrote:
No one would send a farewell to a stamp-collecting forum, or to a chemistry forum like that.

You may be surprised. Lots of people like to make dramatic forum exits (they also tend to be people who come back out of retirement very quickly) and the topic of the forum doesn't really matter, it's about them. It's like the suicide note of forums and you'll find it everywhere.

I suppose you are right. People are weirder than we can imagine. But there seems to be a special quality when it comes to philosophy farewells. It is a kind of bitter resentment born of disappointment that philosophy was not what one expected. It is not at all clear what was expected since it was probably very vague, but at least part of seems to have been that one was expected to post what made sense and wasn't simply free association of ideas, and that expected was that pronouncements be supported by argument. That philosophy was not a kind of free-form expression of random thoughts and feelings seemed a kind of betrayal. It is hard to imagine the same attitude on a chemistry forum.

2 Replies

@kennethamy,

I see what you mean, the debate-centric forums might also be more prone to it as well as the personal topics (relationships etc). I can certainly see how it might be harder to get your panties in a twist over chemistry, but I'm sure some find a way. It's amazing how melodramatic forum culture can be.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

I see what you mean, the debate-centric forums might also be more prone to it as well as the personal topics (relationships etc). I can certainly see how it might be harder to get your panties in a twist over chemistry, but I'm sure some find a way. It's amazing how melodramatic forum culture can be.

It is just that I would think that someone who joined a chemistry forum would have some coherent idea of what chemistry was, and not be embittered (say) if people talked about bonding. But all bets are off in philosophy.

1 Reply

@kennethamy,

On the other hand, academia in real life can be molto dramatic, even in chemistry.

2 Replies

@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

On the other hand, academia in real life can be molto dramatic, even in chemistry.

And that means? And its significance for this thread is?

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@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

On the other hand, academia in real life can be molto dramatic, even in chemistry.

Lord have mercy yes!!!

Drama queenism is very much alive and well.

Has nobody read "The Double Helix" just for starters?

1 Reply

@kennethamy,

It means that academic departments can and often are fraught with anger.

I don't know about departments of philosophy, but I do know about english departments and medicine departments.

The significance to this thread is that people argue for many reasons.

Pontification happens, is routinely resented, and further engagement ensues.

You'd like me to leave this thread?

Why on earth do you want to chase me away for saying all this stuff can be dramatic?

Philosophers, I take as people who pride themselves on thinking. I listen to some.

Oh, and I lived it.

1 Reply

@dlowan,

Yes, of course, early.

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@kennethamy,

kennethamy wrote:

ossobuco wrote:

On the other hand, academia in real life can be molto dramatic, even in chemistry.

And that means? And its significance for this thread is?

It means that anyone who says that "hard science" is less prone to drama and hysteria doesn't know their subject.

Its significance for this thread ought to be obvious...someone (I think it was you) said that such dramas are more likely in forums such as philosophy, and less so in chemistry.

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@dlowan,

Thank you. Yea, solipcism.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

No U start with Philosophical Definitions ! I hope it's not all people trying philosophy you mean ?

4 Me Thinking & Information Exchange are two hands on one belly (Dutch proverb). I love to learn & meet people to talk about it. About lots of things.

4 Me a day "I know it all" is a day lost, because I lost my curiosity.

4 Me telling some-one to leave a thread is an act of impotancy; surely a good Philosopher would know how to deal with the situation.

2 Replies

Philosophers think they know it all - they are never wrong.

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