How exactly did people become 'philosophers' in the old days?

Question

I mean you hardly see this kind of thing advertised in the local job section do you?

When people talk about ancient history they refer to certain people as Plato (or whatever) 'the philosopher'. So what happened... one day they woke up and decided 'I'm gonna think about stuff... that'll be what I do and what I'm remembered for'?!

How does one become a 'philosopher' these days? Can you actually be employed to just sit there and ponder about random stuff for ages? Cos I'd be bloody great at it!!!

Answer 1

They went to school

and no i am not taking the mickey....they had schools of philosophy...all different flavours...I really like the Stoic school

These days about the only nation to take philo's seriously is France. must be all the wars they lost.

Answer 2

In the old days? I am going to assume that you mean back in antiquity, when Greece and Rome were the centers of civilization?

the answer to your question is simple; they were teachers.

You have to look past the modern construction of knowledge when you visualize them as teachers. Nowadays we have things like Science teachers, History teachers, Mathematics teachers, etc. Back in those days none of those subjects existed. There were three major subjects taught by teachers:

Literature
Rhetoric
Philosophy

All modern specializations comes from these three disciplines, which were the cornerstones of ancient education.

Literature was the study of culture, the arts, and what we today call literature. History at that time was an aspect of Literature.

Rhetoric is the school of communicating with people. How to talk to people, what to say, how to give speeches, etc. "people skills" to put it in simple terms

Philosophy was everything else. You see, back in those days, there was no astronomy, no biology, nothing that could answer the big questions. Heck, they didn't even know what a brain did back then (Plato thought it was the house for the soul. Aristotle thought it was an organ that cooled blood.) All the big questions like "Who are we?", "Where did we come from?", and "How did we get here?" were as much religion and philosophy as they were science and mathematics. What we know of as mathematics was part of logic, and what we know of as science was called "natural philosophy". That's the origin of the term "Ph.D", it literally means "Doctor of Philosophy".

Students at the academy did more than what we think of as philosophising: they studied mathematics, logic, science, all that stuff. And the big two: Plato and Aristotle, were the headmasters of the school.

Aristotle eventually left the academy and went on to become the tutor for Alexander the Great. Now there's a decent way to put food on the table ;)


Modern philosophy has diverged from its original subjects into what it means today. Many of the big questions are still around. However, most disciplines that are worth studying have already branched off from philosophy and are their own field of thought (such as science). If you want to be a philosopher, and you get a degree in philosophy, just about the only thing you can do is become a philosophy professor and get paid to give other people philosophy degrees ;)

Answer 3

I'm a philosopher. I'm sixteen years old and has no education whatsoever when it comes to the subject. But I think and I talk and I argue, just like any philosopher. Being a philosopher isn't a regular career, it's simply thinking about the greater, or smaller, questions in life.

Answer 4

The 'old days' that is referred to did not provide the social security to people as now. The vulnerability was more from nature, because of lesser technological means to 'overcome' nature's fury, hurdles, etc. This brought people closer to each other, basically driven by the instinct of survival.
Now, if we just visualise dwelling in a dense forest for a week, without any means, tools of support except a little food, we can see that our levels of alertness is very high each waking moment, and the quality of sleep even is very light.
Constantly maintaining that alertness (even if with some fear) enhances that deep observation , and a few of such people who have better acceptance levels(meaning less of fear) easily evolve, making them 'philosophers'(wiser than the rest) !

Answer 5

the thing is there were schools of philosophers and Plato learned philosophy in Socrate's company ...
buuut heey, who said they were rich people ?! ... at least Socrate wasn't ... he'd give lessons for free in the public squares and make others figure things by themselves but he loved this way of living :)


I guess nowadays if you study philosophy it is very likely to become a teacher. coz philosophers have always been good at giving explanations and teaching the "crowd"

... it would be great if we could go back to ancient times : banquets and thinking about our existence - what a life !!!

Answer 6

Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).[1]

Though no single definition of philosophy is uncontroversial, and the field has historically expanded and changed depending upon what kinds of questions were interesting or relevant in a given era, it is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon reason, striving to make no unexamined assumptions and no leaps based on faith or pure analogy. Different philosophers have had varied ideas about the nature of reason, and there is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to prove.

Answer 7

Being know as "Socrates the Philosopher" is like being know as "Casanova the Lover"

These guys didn't wake up one day and said "I should have a title", they just pursued the things they loved, and the public eventually noticed they were exceptionally talented.

The metaphore continues when it comes to making money. Bit of a trick to get paid to do something you'd do anyway.

So here's the deal:
You can practice Philosophy as a hobby, like Socrates. (No money, here)

You can teach it in a school, like Plato. (Money, but you've now got classes, sceduales and clients)

Or you can use your intelect to solve the sort of problems people pay to have solved. (Scientes, Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, etc.....)

Answer 8

Hello,

You are born this way, with talent and imagination. All people are born with imagination, creativity but some are loosing touch with this part. Philosophers, writers, painters, musicians (pianists, violinists, etc.) are born with talent in they`re domain. As you can`t say one day: "I want to be an writer!", you just can`t. Read, read and write, come up with your own visions, better visions about life. Kant... well he was an philosopher but in my country there was a person that contradict him in his theory's. So philosophers, writers, etc. will for ever appear to insure us with knowledge.

bye.

Answer 9

Does any one know, I don't. Its one of those why did the chicken cross the road questions, but I would have been great at it too (ask the wife)

Answer 10

In the olden days philosiphers were basically rich people who could do whatever they want.

Nowadays there is no real need for philosiphers, although there are some careers that someone with philosiphy can do. Like maybe writing. or It should qualify you for some sort of entry level desk job.