Building Blocks of Philosophical Thought

Basically, electron scanning microscopes see a current of electrons tunneling from the sample into the needle that scans it. The value of that current decreases with the distance between the needle and the current. A control loop within the microscope positions the needle so as to keep that current constant.

Argh! Sorry for dwelling on a digression, but I need to correct a mindo that makes nonsense of my whole explanation of the raster electron microscope.

Thomas wrote:

Basically, electron scanning microscopes see a current of electrons tunneling from the sample into the needle that scans it. The value of that current decreases with the distance between the needle and the current. A control loop within the microscope positions the needle so as to keep that current constant.

In the middle sentence, replace "between the needle and the current" with "between the needle and the sample".

A spin off from another thread.... What do you think the building blocks of philosophical thought are? I mean, before you tackle the ancient Greeks let alone any modern philosophers - what do you need to know to be able to think about philosophy?

1) define philosophy
2) list of 3-5 building blocks


Below is my take as someone who doesn't know much about philosophy.....

Definition via Wiki: Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions (such as mysticism, myth, or the arts) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".

Building blocks:
- an ability to express oneself in both concrete and abstract terms
- an understanding of a set of common, societal values
- an understanding of the relationship between cause and effect
- an understanding of the scientific method/sequential thinking/critical thinking

In defining the term philosophy, I can't improve on its literal translation from Greek to English: "love of wisdom". What are the main elements of pursuing ones love of wisdom? Of course it depends on the lover, just as the pursuit of any other love interest does. For me personally, the five most important points are:

• asking lots of open questions;
  
• being open to new experiences and information, and to changing my mind in response to them;
  
• a sense of playing around and experimenting (this includes thought experiments);
  
• logical thinking;
  
• the courage to follow facts and logic wherever they may lead. This goes back to the earlier point about changing my mind.

So to answer your last question, I think there's almost nothing you need to know to think philosophically, or to think about philosophy. You only need the will and the mindset to figure things out.

In many cases, one learns to think philosophically by reading philosophers, by garnering different perspectives, and---with careful reading---learns the various methods of philosophical articulation and expostulation.

Hi K,

I like to think of Philosophy as the imagining, defining, and analysis of meta-systems. I think of it as the informational exchange that surrounds the concrete. And thus I think its foundational building blocks are the following.

1. Ability to detach from ethos and pathos
2. Ability to imagine
3. Ability to discern pattern
4. Ability to dissect pattern
5. Ability to trace pattern
6. Ability to abandon the familiar
7. Ability to innovate

I like this:

* Curiosity: Where one realizes their interest in <whatever>
* Self-Assessment: What do I know? Think I know or Believe?
* Investigation: Read and Learn about the conclusions others before you came to
* Ponder/Marinate: Let all before you coalesce in your mind. Critically examine what your mind tells you with the validity of others
* Initial decision: What you believe, what you know, what rings true and fits with what you recognize as true, meaningful and valid.
* Share: Share with others your thoughts, process and conclusions.

littlek wrote:

I like this:

* Curiosity: Where one realizes their interest in <whatever>
* Self-Assessment: What do I know? Think I know or Believe?
* Investigation: Read and Learn about the conclusions others before you came to
* Ponder/Marinate: Let all before you coalesce in your mind. Critically examine what your mind tells you with the validity of others
* Initial decision: What you believe, what you know, what rings true and fits with what you recognize as true, meaningful and valid.
* Share: Share with others your thoughts, process and conclusions.

Not too shabby, but it does not consider the hopelessness of the pursuit, or the natural ability of the philosopher....

Fido wrote:

littlek wrote:

I like this:

* Curiosity: Where one realizes their interest in <whatever>
* Self-Assessment: What do I know? Think I know or Believe?
* Investigation: Read and Learn about the conclusions others before you came to
* Ponder/Marinate: Let all before you coalesce in your mind. Critically examine what your mind tells you with the validity of others
* Initial decision: What you believe, what you know, what rings true and fits with what you recognize as true, meaningful and valid.
* Share: Share with others your thoughts, process and conclusions.

Not too shabby, but it does not consider the hopelessness of the pursuit, or the natural ability of the philosopher....

meaning...

north wrote:

Fido wrote:

littlek wrote:

I like this:

* Curiosity: Where one realizes their interest in <whatever>
* Self-Assessment: What do I know? Think I know or Believe?
* Investigation: Read and Learn about the conclusions others before you came to
* Ponder/Marinate: Let all before you coalesce in your mind. Critically examine what your mind tells you with the validity of others
* Initial decision: What you believe, what you know, what rings true and fits with what you recognize as true, meaningful and valid.
* Share: Share with others your thoughts, process and conclusions.

Not too shabby, but it does not consider the hopelessness of the pursuit, or the natural ability of the philosopher....

meaning...

Meaning the chances of a person making a dent in the problem, which is the human condition is slight, hopeless; and that the element of creativity, creative thinking, insight is very rare, but as essential to the artist as to the philosopher...

No one can give another understanding, any more than one can give moral sense to one without it, but each are essential to the character of a good philosopher... Now, by moral sense, I do not necessarily mean moral health, and some like Nietzsche and Socrates seem positively defective... But their sense, consciousness, of morals helped them to make a mark and contribution to philosophy...I think it is likely that if they were morally healthy they would have been too happy to have cared beyond their limited horizons...

Fido wrote:

north wrote:

Fido wrote:

littlek wrote:

I like this:

* Curiosity: Where one realizes their interest in <whatever>
* Self-Assessment: What do I know? Think I know or Believe?
* Investigation: Read and Learn about the conclusions others before you came to
* Ponder/Marinate: Let all before you coalesce in your mind. Critically examine what your mind tells you with the validity of others
* Initial decision: What you believe, what you know, what rings true and fits with what you recognize as true, meaningful and valid.
* Share: Share with others your thoughts, process and conclusions.

Not too shabby, but it does not consider the hopelessness of the pursuit, or the natural ability of the philosopher....

meaning...

Meaning the chances of a person making a dent in the problem, which is the human condition is slight, hopeless; and that the element of creativity, creative thinking, insight is very rare, but as essential to the artist as to the philosopher...

No one can give another understanding, any more than one can give moral sense to one without it, but each are essential to the character of a good philosopher... Now, by moral sense, I do not necessarily mean moral health, and some like Nietzsche and Socrates seem positively defective... But their sense, consciousness, of morals helped them to make a mark and contribution to philosophy...I think it is likely that if they were morally healthy they would have been too happy to have cared beyond their limited horizons...

the want to know , which is what science is all about

north wrote:

Fido wrote:

north wrote:

Fido wrote:

littlek wrote:

I like this:

* Curiosity: Where one realizes their interest in <whatever>
* Self-Assessment: What do I know? Think I know or Believe?
* Investigation: Read and Learn about the conclusions others before you came to
* Ponder/Marinate: Let all before you coalesce in your mind. Critically examine what your mind tells you with the validity of others
* Initial decision: What you believe, what you know, what rings true and fits with what you recognize as true, meaningful and valid.
* Share: Share with others your thoughts, process and conclusions.

Not too shabby, but it does not consider the hopelessness of the pursuit, or the natural ability of the philosopher....

meaning...

Meaning the chances of a person making a dent in the problem, which is the human condition is slight, hopeless; and that the element of creativity, creative thinking, insight is very rare, but as essential to the artist as to the philosopher...

No one can give another understanding, any more than one can give moral sense to one without it, but each are essential to the character of a good philosopher... Now, by moral sense, I do not necessarily mean moral health, and some like Nietzsche and Socrates seem positively defective... But their sense, consciousness, of morals helped them to make a mark and contribution to philosophy...I think it is likely that if they were morally healthy they would have been too happy to have cared beyond their limited horizons...

the want to know , which is what science is all about

Science is the easy fraction of philosophy... If one will do philosophy where it is demanding and dangerous, where philosophy is needed, is in the moral world, what some may call emphatic reality... There the prospect of knowing anything is slight, where definitions are non existent, where all moral forms are infinites, is where all the problems confronting humanity are born and bred... The logic and reason that make science possible is all but useless in the moral world just as some scientists find morals useless in the scientific world... But in morals is where the action is in philosophy... Given a choice, most people would chose to find the meaning of being, of material things evident in our world... For the moralist, the challenge is to find some substancial being to the meanings that moral forms are to humanity, that we cannot seem to live without, like oxigen, without a part of the being of oxigen...

Care to be more specific, because I do not remember offering reasoning, but only saying what is obvious...

Fido wrote:

Care to be more specific, because I do not remember offering reasoning, but only saying what is obvious...

emotionaly

north wrote:

Fido wrote:

Care to be more specific, because I do not remember offering reasoning, but only saying what is obvious...

emotionaly

Emotions are examples of moral forms, as are qualities like mind and consciousness... There are scientists who look for some being of these forms in the matter of the brain, but they are essentially meanings without true being, and we live our lives thick with such moral forms which are meanings only without being, and science works at finding the meaning of beings, like that of gold compared to lead... Which is light work... If you want to really be a philosopher you have to wade in where reason is not worth its weight in words....