Originally Posted by
inumbra
i kinda feel like culture is actually starved of philosophy and that's what is creating this phenomenon of "empty" philosophy and poor use of it. like i certainly wouldn't be for getting rid of the philosophy department in university. and no i wasn't a middle class college student and am have a bit of a class chip on my shoulder that wasn't triggered by a single philosophy course i took. i just liked thinking and feeding my Ti HA. i would say the classes i took felt a little sterile though... but anyway to me philosophy isn't a waste of time, it's actually an area where one can guide their existence towards meaning/purpose free of dogma, if it's honored and if the work is put in... and it has a role in society in questioning all the assumptions and worldviews, all the implicit belief systems and ways of thinking... like if used well it will unravel dogma, not create it. and it's part of who we are... i kinda feel like without any guiding light of meaning, without a personal philosophy of how to live, it's harder to live well? and i feel i am too unwise. anyway people using philosophy in this dogmatic i'm smarter than you way is probably just reflecting a need for more philosophy (a restoration of something lost)... it's like a starving kitten eating rocks, it knows it needs to fill itself with... something... i guess i'm not really bothered though by people trying to prove how smart they are and using whichever academic field to do it. it's ego not the field. and my ego is terrible so i get it. butttt it is annoying i suppose... but i feel like philosophy doesn't top the list of fields used pretentiously... i saw more of that in science classes.
it's also that i feel like so much in the US at least is "processed." the food is processed, the thought is processed... any you get something sterile with no nourishment... so philosophy too has been sterilized...