i hate philosophy. its realy pretty pointless......?

Question

people are constantly arguing whether we exist or not. of course we exist!!! if not then why are we experiencing things!!! philosphy is just totaly pointless argueing about the weirdest most unrealistic thing. particularly whether we exist or not. if we dont exist then why are we arguing about it? how do we communicate and go to work and eat and feel emotions if we dont exist??

dont you agree??

Answer 1

Not entirely. Although its a pretty "out there" pursuit philosophy can have, and has had, very practical results, we just can;t tell which bits are usefull until they .... er ... become usefull.

The Theories of Relativity are heavily inspired by logical positivism. But perhaps the best example is formal logic and some complete ivory tower chap who came up with a way of incorporating arithmetic into formal logic. Completely pointless and none had a clue how to use it in any way that had the slightest use - until they invented the computer using his theories. Yes the thing you are using is dependent on a piece of massively abstract philosophy that went unused for hundres of years. (Boolean logic BTW).

Answer 2

Philosophy is basically 'ideas in search of a meaning for our existence'.
You are very right, in some way or another we absolutely do exist. Whether everybody around is a figment of your imagination or not, the fact still remains that they EXIST as a part of your imagination and you EXIST as the imaginator. Or whether we are reduced to a computer system controlled by the 'the real world" (such as in the movie the matrix), again the fact remains that within that computer system we do exist as some sort of software-like program.
The most basic, and I believe unarguable, idea we can pull from philosophy is something that was said by the philosopher Decart, his idea was; "I think therefore I am". Because, like you said, we have feelings and emotions that bring about different reactions, because we think and form opinions and communicate does mean that we exist in some way.
Anybody that argues otherwise has no basis to argue anything at all. If someone believes that we don't exist then nothing can be proven because you have no proof or reason to argue for or against anything- The ideas behind the argument don't exist so it becomes a circular or even contradictory argument.
But after the basis that 'I think therefore I am' nothing can truely be proven so it is all based on personal opinion and belief of what could be possible, or what in someone's mind is the most probable possibility.

Answer 3

It is probably just not your inclination. I never majored philosophy, but I am more interested in it than any other fields of Arts and Humanities.. It is hard to explain but taking it from here, has it ever occured in your mind that the our intellect is more capable than just absorbing the absolute truth that have been passed on to us by our Professors, text books and other informative tools. Self-experience is the key word. Experience the universe and what places your importance in the midst of it, then you may appreciate the beauty of Philosophy. Maybe you are the type of person who embraces knowledge as how it is inculcated in us plain as that but for me i believe that above knowledge is a reason. Geometry is not just planes and angles, theorems and postulates. Do you believe in me when I say it is perfectly reasonable to discern that Geometry was derived from the existence of the universe -the angles, the planes, the trapezoid etc just practically looking up upon a bright starry night? Or the truth and beauty encompassing the harmony and balance between good and evil? or maybe you just memorize these theorems and postulates so you could conscientiously say you have a degree and now you can go to work and sustain your life by eating.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of people think Philosophy is really sucks and useless. For me, it is all where pertinent faculties of thought emerged from.

Answer 4

For some reason, philosopher wanna-bees have a strong desire to feel they are in control. Thus the garbage about existing or dream worlds or what if.... or other nonsensical garbage. Yes existence has a way of making itself felt and sooner or later, the wanna-bees come down out of the clouds and face up to it. But philosophy, true philosophy, the searching inquiring kind that always ask the questions How?, why?, and where?, are the building blocks of discovery. Someone had to ask the question before the discovery and the question sprung from philosophy.

Answer 5

There's much more to philosophy than arguing our existance. Some of our greatest leaps and bounds came from philosophy.

Without it, the US Constitution would never have been written, there would be no notion of equal rights, or fair labor practices, the writ of Habeas Corpus would never have come into being.

General ethics and norms that govern our lives are born of philosophy.

No, it's not pointless at all.

Answer 6

What you're talking about are people TRYING to do philosophy, but not doing it very well.

Yes, those discussions are tiresome (I remember them well, from my days as a philosophy major -- I didn't have much patience for them then, either).

But that's just the common misconception of what philosophy's about -- it's not the Real Deal.

Answer 7

To quote one of my professors, "Philosophy is the only science that has been around for thousands of years and hasn't gone anywhere." I often ponder philosophy because I have nothing better to do on a sunday night.

Answer 8

I agree with tehabwa. It's tiresome to hear people trying to do philosophy when they don't really know how. Really good philosophers (in my book, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas) found great answers to great questions and expressed them very clearly.

"Philosophy" means "love of wisdom".

Answer 9

Yeah, half of the time. But sometimes you have to ask these questions so you can realise afterwards how pointless it is. It's called learning and finding out for yourself.

Answer 10

"The Voices!... Must stop the voices!!!!"

I can't agree with anything that may not exist.

That would be insane.