<story><title>Why read old philosophy?</title><url>https://meteuphoric.com/2017/01/04/why-read-old-philosophy/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>weichi</author><text>Most of the comments here are completely missing the point of the article.&lt;p&gt;The article is not about whether the ideas espoused by old philosophers are worth learning about, or about whether old philosophers are worth reading. The article asks the question of why philosophers prefer to read the original works of old philosophers, instead of reading descriptions of these ideas by authors who have demonstrated competence is explaining philosophical ideas. Which is the way that education is handled in most (all?) scientific fields.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why read old philosophy?</title><url>https://meteuphoric.com/2017/01/04/why-read-old-philosophy/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>arca_vorago</author><text>Because too many people these days are the &amp;quot;school is overrated, vocational schools are all we need&amp;quot; types who don&amp;#x27;t understand the basic value of going through the old philosophers... the title is case in point. To me it seems so obvious that there are numerous reasons that it just seems click-baity.&lt;p&gt;You know what they teach at the elite schools (like Eton for example) that most others don&amp;#x27;t? The trivium and quadrivium. Together, they form the seven liberal arts, and are a vital parts of the preperation for reading the old philosophers. More than that though, they are vital parts of having a well rounded education where knowledge at a base level in areas almost always elevates your ability to think well in others.&lt;p&gt;It is also extremely important to be able to go back and see how the old philosophers were right and how they were wrong, but also just to see the amount of wisdom they had. I&amp;#x27;m a constitutionalist myself, so reading Montesquieu for example is a great way to dig into the meat of the underpinnings of the checks and balances system, for example. I hardly see a modern textbook get half as deep as him on the subject...&lt;p&gt;There is still vast amounts of wisdom to be gleaned from the old philosophers, and I highly disagree with the assertion of the author about it being more like poetry than knowledge.</text></comment>