How come people at Philosophy section love to philosophise?

Question

when they don't even know what a proposition, syllogism, or fallacy is? Strictly speaking, how can a person philosophize without knowing the basic and elementary knowledge of logic? Most yap about Descartes, Kant, epistemology, existentialism, etc. without the slightest knowledge about how, for example, are arguments in ordinary language can be reduced to syllogisms.

I doubt nobody can answer my question. Only those who know and are on the same wavelength with me are genuine philosophers.

@ Aaron: yes, bud, logic is a prerequisite to the study of philosophy.

@Trina: This is philosophy, not psychology.

Anyone who can tell me what's a major term, a minor term and a middle term, is in an argumentation (syllogism), you're free to go and I'll give you 10 points.

Yeah. I misspelled the word in haste. I stand corrected.

But hey, if you look up the word philosophize in the dictionary, it has philosophise as an alternative spelling so my spelling isn't exactly wrong!

Answer 1

This only describes one aspect of philosophy what about ethics?
Are not we all to benefit from the discussion of our ideas or must we first become formally educated.
Thanks for trying to motivate me to get around to studying my Logic an Introduction book second edition but my feelings of inferiority do not sufficiently out weigh my basic laziness.
Your concern is flattering though.
[add]
the major term= predicate of the conclusion and the premise containing the major term is called the major premise.
the minor term=term appearing as the subject of of the conclusion and the premise containing the this term is called the minor premise.
the middle term= the term which appears in both premises but not the conclusion.
O.K. you win this time
P.S. thanks

Answer 2

"Logic, formal: Investigates the structure of propositions and of deductive reasoning by a method which abstracts from the content of propositions which come under consideration and deals only with their logical form." [1]

Aristotle formulated all this, and it works for any language.
A proposition is a statement. "All girls are pretty." The statement cannot be more than simple. E.g., "All girls are pretty because their curves are appealing to the male."
There must be no more than 2 propositions.
There must be a common "middle term" and it must appear only once in one of the propositions, and in the conclusion.
There are 2 "types" of proposition: the categorical and the conditional.
There are 4 forms of these propositions called A, E, I, and O.
There must also be one major and one minor term.
The "mood" is found in the combination of the use of any of the 4 forms.
The "figure" refers to where the middle term is placed in one of the two propositions which is not the conclusion.
There are 72 "moods" of which 60 always lead to NECESSARILY FALSE conclusions, because of the stucture of the syllogism. The syllogism is merely the structure of the argument using the major, minor, and middle terms; so there are 60 ways to get the syllogism wrong.
But of the 12 remaining "moods," NONE necessarily leads to a truth, only to the possibility of a truth, because the syllogism can be constructed properly, and the conclusion can still be mistaken. [2]
4 hours ago - Edit - Delete
Source(s):
[1] Dictionary of Philosophy: Runes, Editor
[2] A Handbook of Logic: Joseph Gerard Brennan

By the way, by your own definition of how little the people in YA know of philosophy, how can you claim they love to "philosophise?" What they do only constitutes "pop" philosophy, and it is because modern philosophy has taught our civilization that all ideas are equal to others: the poor bastards believe it.

Answer 3

I have a BA Philosophy and I think there are severals reasons for what you describe. First, I think your question was worded very concisely. Second, people sometimes take the Path of Least Resistance so the people who are good at talking and expressing themselves gravitate to Philosophy. Third, sometimes, it is BS and philosophy students will pick up big words and use them in such a way that they are not making any sense at all and whomever they are talking too just thinks they are to stupid to understand. Just a observation but if the average person cannot understand what a philosophy student is saying, then are they really good communicators able to express themselves?

Answer 4

How come people at Philosophy section love to philosophize?
That's like asking " how come birds of a feather flock together"?
When you are in this section that's what you do. You must assume that we are all foolish little birds pecking about with the owls and the seagulls!!!
You spelled philosophize wrong. Don't you even study the word?

Answer 5

Intelligence and ignorace are different things (ie - you can discuss interesting topics in interesting ways without fancy vocabulary, of course it helps with precision but its not necessary)

Philosophy is just 'thinking about stuff' anyway. If you think, then you are a genuine philosopher. (and if you can share your thoughts with clarity, insight and compassion then you are a 'good' philosopher)

People like to think so thats why people like philosophy and it doesn't really matter how sophisticated you are about it.

If you want to get picky, maybe you should decide if you want to 'philosophise' or 'philosophize'.

Answer 6

Philosophy is above all freedom of thought, freedom from even (though not ignorance of) accepted terminology. And that's exactly what the bulk of Western philosophy is: a debate about words, about the meaning of words, coining of new words, asking deep and subtle questions but providing no answers

I will take up your argumentation if you would tell me of one question regarding man that this philosophy has been able to answer,one aspect of man's condition that it has addressed satisfactorily - to say nothing of what lies beyond man.

Answer 7

I think you should check that Ego in the Psychology category. Tell Freud I sent you.

Edit:
Exactly! A true philosopher drops arrogance. S/he realizes that in the grand scheme of things, s/he really "knows" nothing. The philosopher continually searches for "truth." Ego and arrogance get in the way of that.

Answer 8

We know nothing; therefore we question everything. Of course, not all of us are philosophers...some of us have taken philosophy courses, and are interested in learning. If you are the person who can teach us...by all means...most of us are all ears/eyes.

Answer 9

i donot agree. i will speak for myself. i have done no formal course in philosophy. i am just a regular guy with a regular job. but the greatest love of my life is philosophy and i have learned more philosophy from bits and pieces than formal text books. that dosent mean i donot know it.

Answer 10

Does philosophy necessitate logic?

P.S. I think you meant to say "I doubt anybody can answer my question."

P.P.S. Last time I checked logic was only one branch of philosophy, you might want to broaden your horizons. Philosophy : Philos (love of), Sophia (knowledge)