9 Responses to “What Use Philosophy?”
pshakkottai Says:
Hi Patrice, Philosophy and Science were treated together in Rg Veda as I have mentioned before. The ancients studied all worthwhile fields of endeavor. Anyway I like your explanation of Philosophy before science!
Partha.
Patrice Ayme Says:
Thanks Partha! That India invented the zero is no accident: Indian “mythology” was relaxed with numbers, attributing (correctly) an immense age to life, whereas the Christians confused life with a fraction of the history of civilization!
The Greeks had part of the modern numeration system. China invented it in appearance independently… Although news travelled well in Eurasia… Greeks and Indians were fully aware of each other, well before Alexander ridiculized himself by trying to conquer India, on his way to the Pacific Ocean (that was his plan, which didn’t resist contact with a serious Indian army…)… Yet the zero was something Greeks intellectuals didn’t dare to do, at least officially! Although Greek businessmen may have had it… It took India to forge ahead… While Europe was sinking under the Christian fascist superstition…
March 24, 2018 at 10:32 am | Reply
March 23, 2018. France reeling under the latest Fundamental Islam activity, with shootings in three places, finishing in supermarket. Gendarmerie Colonel who volunteered to replace a woman hostage, has died. Others died or are between life and death… Young Islamist punk with a 9mm handgun.
Idiots are going around, wondering why it is happening to France: large, long lasting, multi-generational philosophical failure, that’s why…
‏@Tyranosopher
The problem with Islamism is not any different from the problem with the Catholic Inquisition in the Middle Ages. Its main enabling factor: most of those described as “intellectuals” in the West didn’t consider it a problem, even viewing Islamism as a form of liberation struggle!
@samsparkes999
French Police Officer Arnaud Beltrame a true hero, has died after swapping himself with a hostage taken by a terrorist in #Trebes.
Sir, you paid the ultimate sacrifice💙 May you RIP…
johsh Says:
The problem with “modern age” is not lack of philosophy, as every person has access to any information/philosophies they seek at their finger tips. In fact , there is too much.
The problem is lack of “wisdom”. The kind of wisdom elders accrue over their lifetime. This was give utmost importance in some older cultures with concepts like “sage” , “gurus”, “teacher-disciple” concepts etc. India,/Chinese (“east”) old cultural literature is full of these notions.
The “modern age” (advanced economies) lost it over last few centuries, as younger generation started feeling they could learn everything by themselves , they just have to go to school/college. And they call elders by their first name.
With new information revolution, this only expedited. Confusion is exploding. Lack of clarity is rampant. Cluelessness is on exponential growth.
“fake news” is just the beginning of the future nightmares.
I guess the nature has to teach “modern human societies” few lessons.
A culture has to develop. It is an organic thing, not one person can do. It is a “culture” thing afterall.
Johsh: All the points you make are excellent. All the notions starting with “sen” make an allusion to seniority. Such as Senate, etc. I would even suggest that the Proto Indo European root for old, SEN is the same as the one for sense (SENT, hence sentire, sensus (L) = sense (E))…
The Old were the libraries, and sources of wisdom, for millions of years. This is why the human species has more old than the other species… Some whales can apparently live three centuries, in good, youthful health… However, humans have evolved much faster, something rendered possible by fast generational turn-over. Lionesses keep on reproducing until they die of old age, most species do… But human females can spend half their lives, so old, they are unable to reproduce: a testimony of the importance of wisdom (quite a bit the same for old males).
So indeed, there is no more wisdom, nor even respect for wisdom, or even the notion itself. Zuck rules, complete with T shirt and the haggard look of the one who feels he has got to be wise as he is so wealthy (forgetting so was the case with the Mafia, Stalin, Mao, or Putin…) I came across complete lies spread by the Catholic Church (the…oldest institution), so the problem of lying is not restricted to the young. Actually, this is related and therein today’s massive essay on Constantine’s book burning, which is incoming…
Agree, philosophy is the foundation. I am sharing with you some philosophical thoughts of mine, explaining, why the religious fanatics have it wrong.
Scientific approach to perceive reality negates the cultural approach, that is based on prejudices, faith in oversimplified explanation of perceived facts that are collected randomly and arbitrary, without criticism. This reality perceived without criticism is filtered through prism of culture, and the results are disinformation in form of febles, conspiracy theories, archaic pre concepts of reality, deeply infiltrated in the human individual and communal consciousness. This process brings to human being faith and belief systems, that within its own subjective reasoning, based on unverified facts create a whole belief system, either semi rational or mystical. The non scientific approach to reality is also starting with hypotheses, but it remains in this stage, with no data collection and with no following process of verification or refutification. The non scientific hypothesis is in principle lacking the method of accounter it with data with potential refutation.
Part of the fanaticism is related to the will to have just one God, while claiming It’s good. Clearly if there is just one God, it has got to be pretty bad, part of the time, as depicted in the Old Testament… But Christians, Catholics, don’t want to admit the occasional viciousness of God… Which both the Old Testament and the Qur’an freely admit, along the line of:’God may be vicious, sometimes, but He is God, Merciful…’
Polytheism (India), AND tolerating many religions (not old India, but to some extent, old China… And the European Middle Ages, forced to tolerate the Jews, who were there first, not a small detail…) are weapons against fanaticism… YET, one has to impose respect for SECULAR law… (Not clear in present day Europe with Islam).
Scientific is an interesting notion: it comes from the Latin “sciere”, to SAW… So science rests on some violence, on the ability to cut the crap… In that basic sense, there is nothing very new and mysterious about science: it’s good old common sense, developed during millions of years, outsmarting ferocious animals…