What utilitarian purpose does philosophy serve in the 21st century?

Philosophy literally moves the world pham. World War II was heavily driven by ideologies which sprang from philosophy. Scientific progress is the easiest thing in the world. Anyone can contribute. Philosophy on the other hand requires nothing short of genius to advance, which is why its progress is so comparatively slow. Philosophy is still digesting the advances made in neuroscience, but it will one day produce a model of the human mind that goes far beyond any merely scientific understanding.

Something practical like Stoicism may be useful in that regard, but that's just one ancient philosophy out of many redundant ones throughout time.

>what purpose does philosophy have in my specific branch of philosophy?

Philosophies/philosophers that have had a direct impact on my life:

Stoicism, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Plotinus, Evola, Tillich, Cioran, Parmenides, Hegel, Plato, Lao Tzu, Buddha. On and on and on.

The more you read hood philosophy. the more your outlook on life improves, and the more your outlook improves the more you read good philosophy that reinforces it and continues your positive change in attitude/lifestyle

>>>>>>philosophy serves a purpose
no meaningful development in world history was planned

I guess I can agree with that, I didn't think of it in that way. I had completely forgotten that the ideologies that sparked major events like WW2 were due to philosophy.

Agree. It's okay as entertainment, but it's completely pointless.
Actually, I'm not sure what the goal of philosophy is. Is it to find a list of rules to follow? Feels like it's just for atheists who can't handle it, so they need to invent a new set of arbitrary rules. Is this the goal of philosophy, to find stuff that makes you feel good?
If so, it isn't really any better than regular religion. Philosophers deserve no more respect than someone who spends all their time reading the bible.

So we have a reason to exist beyond being a cog that fucks

I can tolerate stuff like Stoicism because it is practical and founded on reality but a lot of philosophy just irks me because it spends pages upon pages putting reality through abstractions, and I feel reality can't be 'known' like that because it's always moving and attaching empty concepts to it is a waste of time.

The quote by Heraclitus 'No man steps in the same river twice, for he is not the same man and the river is not the same river' sums it up nicely.

sent from my iPhone

the pleasure of the curious

No it's not about understanding the Prussian court or whatever. Liberalism as a political philosophy wouldn't exist without Kant. Or Descartes or Hobbes or even Plato for that matter. This goes for all modern political ideologies from fascism to individualist anarchism.

Why would read pessimistic philosophers alongside people like Buddha and Lao Tzu?

Because you need to be able understand, accept, and overcome in yourself even the darkest conceptions of existence

I don't even read philosophy but seems like it's just making up stuff and describing it with words.
Brings no knowledge to the world, but can provide entertainment and fill people with meaning. Just like religion. It does not bring anything new that has any real benefit to anyone but the individual.

>I don't even read philosophy but seems like [shit I pulled out of my ass]

Fuck off

>hurr hurr murder is wrong
>why?
>because that's what people say
Completely worthless. Anyone could tell you that, and it doesn't bring anything new to the table in any way.

In order for there to be such a thing as a utilitarian purpose, you must have some sort of goal or set of goals. It is the job of philosophy to determine what those goals should or could be.

lol

You must be 18+ to post here

People who read philosophy books in order to "help" themselves or figure out how to live their own lives are totally misguided. Philosophy isn't fucking self-help. You should read philosophy if you want to understand where the idea of citizenship comes from, for instance, or the role of the Church in society and how that's changed over time, or how militaries and government justify fighting wars. It's not to make you "feel better" or some new age bullshit about the "nature of reality." Philosophy is a tool that creates beliefs and beliefs motivate ordinary citizens to support (or denounce) their leaders.

>le everything is about politics and governments and political ideologies maymay

God fuck off you bore. Philosophy is literally "love of wisdom" not exclusively this gay tedious political science bullshit you're trying to peddle

I am 18+

Okay, so reading historical philosophy may have some value in understanding history. But that doesn't make anything any modern pholosophers do have any value. Just words, words, words, with no content.

>I am 18+

Genuinely sorry to hear that.

>bore
>tedious
There are plenty of fiction books and movies out there if you want to be entertained.

>that doesn't make anything any modern pholosophers do have any value.
Yeah that's exactly right. That's why all they do nowadays is teach philosophy.

It makes me happy, and I experience happiness at a higher level than other people.

So much so, that it's morally unjustifiable NOT to get your philosophy degree.

>he thinks political philosophy is the only philosophy there is and should be

lmao

Yeah that's right. What's your position? Something wordy and meaningless I'm sure

I don't care about convincing you of anything. Enjoy your life.

Why are you tryina argue with me then you fucking retard? if you don't care then dont fuckin type anything

It doesn't serve and doesn't need to serve a utilitarian purpose; it's just a bunch of books that make you think. Often times the consequence of some philosophy is revealed after the philosophy, so whatever purpose philosophy has in the 21st century would need to be found after philosophy is read, rather than before or during.

Because I love laughing at pseuds like you

do you consider young thug to be a hood philosopher?

I'm being completely sincere when I say this: there's nothing I enjoy more than smoking a blunt while reading dank philosophy and then riding 'round bumping shit like Best Friend

You might ask the same about corporate managers and how they are useful to companies. You'd be an idiot that has no clue how things work if you did though. Philosophy is like intellectual high level management.

Why is a reason necessary? Every single other animal on the planet I'd just a cog that fucks, and then dies. Why does humanity need to be any different? Because evolution gave us a big brain instead of claws or strength or speed as a defense mechanism, and thus we have the means to question it?

You have it backwards. You have some philosophy, and you don't know what it is.

You know what a person without a philosophy looks like? A corpse.

I used to think philosophy was pointless. Then something really bad happened to me. While struggling to get my life back on track, I realised that I actually had no idea why I ought to get my life back on track.

I'd never had to think about hard questions before, because my life was easy.

>being content with living like an animal

is this seriously what you're arguing you fucking mong?

>metaphisics is pointless, this metaphysician summed it up perfectly
Every time.

Philosophy is like politics. You can't "not have an opinion". You always have a point of view.

I mean you don't have to read famous philosophers. But there'll be at least one famous philosopher who shares your opinions.

That there are philosophers of all opinions illustrates why philosophy is so stupid. It shows that it's nothing more than a bunch of words to justify your opinions, there's no attempt to actually find something. It's just a bunch of pre-made arguments for people who don't want to think about it themselves. Anyone can have opinions, you don't need philosophers for that.

>Anyone can have opinions, you don't need philosophers for that.
But this is the basic misunderstanding. If you have a philosophical opinion, and express it, you ARE a philosopher!

Seems like what you're really saying is you're vaguely annoyed that people can become famous by this method even though they're wrong. Well congratulations, you're now a philosopher who disagrees with other philosophers. You're part of the problem. Welcome to being a human being.

>people in the thread talking about the progress of philosophy.

I'm not a fan of Hegel or Marx, guys. Philosophy has been troubled since the French revolutionary philosophers. I can't be moved to post a dirge about the whole god damn history so I'll post a funny and maybe it'll make sense.

You are an animal.

it is one several useful criteria for HR people to discard your resume

As just a layman it serves no use to you.
Philosophy opens new horizons in different fields and ways of thinking.
A simple example:
You read a philosophical work and intorduces some a concept or redefines an known concept in a way to which you are not used to.
Suddenly your world view in that area expands can include another different reasonable understanding.
This can help you when thinking about a solution to a problem within X field. Suddenly you can find a solution that was unattainable to you because of your presuppositions about how a word or concept are to be understood.

Philosophy is helpful for different other academic and high level persuits.
It helps entrepreneurs for example cause they need to rethink things and find solutions to before unidentified problems or problems that seemed unsolvable etc...

>bullshit like metaphysics

/thread

this one is stupid, you should have used this image OP

Another way of thinking about philosophy is as a field of study that redefines questions.
Again, by changing the very fundamental blocks of thinking about a topic it can rule out false problems and ask the correct questions.
Science then uncovers answers to these questions.
A proper question already has a solution and science is simply the method by which this solution is uncovered.
False problems have no solutions and they cannot be uncovered by any scientific means.

When STEMtards understand they are simply high order mechanical monkies doing the menial work they suddenly feel humbled and start reading philosophy.

What purpose does anything serve?

Yeah, exactly.

Batista's, janitors, and welfare sponge's

Three orders of thinking beings.
>The religious believers are totally irrational (i.e. it is impossible to discuss anything with them).
>The scientific believers will take rationality to their graves — and therefore fail to understand anything about the universe beyond some petty, narrow facts about each individual science.
>And finally, the philosophical believers, who operate wholly on the level of rationality, while recognizing the irrational foundations of all rationality. They can, in other words, rationally demonstrate their irrationality. They operate, therefore, on a higher, third-level rationality, a rationality which the scientific believers are not rational enough to understand (not to speak of the religious ones).

+1

i would disagree i don't think that being deliberately irrational is the end game of philosophy, however i also don't see anything wrong with metaphysics

Philosophy is what happens when rich old white men are bored. It's the most bourgeois thing possible.

>i would disagree i don't think that being deliberately irrational is the end game of philosophy
>however i also don't see anything wrong with metaphysics
Top banter, religious one.

To realize to what extent slave culture, genuine slave culture, dominates slave society, and how far feelings have come from the noble days, consider that a mere 200 years ago one was ashamed to admit one was working, and today everyone around you looks down on and pities you if you say you don't work.

>China had philosophers
>The Indian states had philosophers
>The Caliphates had philosophers

>old white men

Also, shitposting bonus round
>Greeks
>white
>Romans
>white

The philosopher knows the arational as the ground of the rational. He sees beyond the sensible and into what it is to even be able to speak of being, life, and existence.

A thinking animal. Your biological fatalism can take a hike.

>If there's no utility then you may as well classify philosophy as mere entertainment, like TV shows or plays, instead of pretending like it gets people anywhere.

Go back to Veeky Forums

>being this ignorant

Guess science hasn't given us anything either.

Posted on an internet board.

Is running Apollonian or Dionysian?

By running I mean at least 8 km/hour, not that sheepish bouncing on concrete everyone seems to do.

>That there are philosophers of all opinions illustrates why philosophy is so stupid. It shows that it's nothing more than a bunch of words to justify your opinions, there's no attempt to actually find something. It's just a bunch of pre-made arguments for people who don't want to think about it themselves. Anyone can have opinions, you don't need philosophers for that.
>Not thinking that justifying your opinions is worth it.

This is the only answer that respond OP's question properly.

>religious
getting kinda defensive there

I don't think it's about being deliberately irrational so much as recognizing that you need to engage in an irrational behaviour at some point. Even if it's just the leap of assuming that your senses can be at least somewhat trusted.

It answers utilitarian questions, for one thing.

You're almost there. There's exactly one philosophy that doesn't involve any irrational behaviour. And that's theism held by a person who has an intuitive belief in God.

This might seem strange, but it's the only philosophy that is based on something personal and first-person (an intuition) that explains everything else (why your senses should be trusted).

The same purpose it's ever served: To assuage feelings of existential angst among those who do not find solace in religion.

Those are the very questions philosophy tries to answer. I guess it's just the by product of our curiosity and desire for truth.

Nah. Belief in God is inherently irrational. There's literally no reason to believe God exists.

>le epin existential dread bogey man

this board is for children

>There's literally no reason to believe God exists.
There is for me. I have an intuition of being in contact with God.

Now you can say that the intuition is a cognitive distortion, and you could be right. But in that case, I'd fall down the rabbit hole of not having a good reason to believe anything.

Keeping my intuition about God as "real", allows me to shed light on everything else. It's a perfect fit.

Being funded by the state to attempt to convince you that life in it's constraints is in any way meaningful and convince you to neither kill yourself nor act against it's interests.

or inventing bullshit, that too.

Bear in mind that the absolute truths of humanity (thinking, existence) are at the mercy of the least intelligent and most entitled populations of the first world. These people quite literally oversee whether something is "right" or "wrong".

Kant's response to his critics could also be used to refer to those who dismiss philosophy in the present day and age.

>Incompetent judges, who, while they would have a common name for every deviation from their perverse though common opinion, and never judge of the spirit of philosophic nomenclature, but cling to the letter only, are ready to put their own conceits in the place of well-defined notions, and thereby deform and distort them. (Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics that can Present itself as Science, 293)

>But in that case, I'd fall down the rabbit hole of not having a good reason to believe anything.

That's kind of the point. No matter what stance you take, you have to take a leap at some point.

>Keeping my intuition about God as "real", allows me to shed light on everything else. It's a perfect fit.

Believing something really hard doesn't make it rational.

Just accept it my friend, irrationality is not inherently bad. Learning to cope with ambiguity, which existence is full of is just part of growth.

"Entrepreneurs" is the last word I expect to find in a thread about philosophy

provides a tried and trust means of reasoning to find creative solutions in a constantly changing environment.

>That's kind of the point. No matter what stance you take, you have to take a leap at some point.
No. It's not a leap to accept my relation with God. It's something that is presented to me at a basic level.

I'm not saying it couldn't be a delusion, but it seems to me that it's less likely to be a delusion than the material world is.

Read the first book of Aristotle's metaphysics.

Metaphysics satisfies our desire to know things about reality. Many other kinds of knowledge have no value to themselves, because they are simply tools for other needs and wants we have. They intrinsically valueless on their own, as all their value is derived from something else. The knowledge you get from a discipline like metaphysics is purely intellectual. It is simply for the sake of itself and the fact that it brings wisdom to its practitioner, which is something we desire and are granted happiness by. It has all of it's value contained in itself. This makes it the most superior intellectual discipline of them all.

Philosophy thrives on leisure, it is the fruit of a society that can meet all of its needs and more, rather than a method for gaining some other kind of fruit.

>Just words, words, words, with no content.

Please study a subject before you comment on it.

You do realize there are specific methods to how you defend your positions right? Philosophy is about giving coherent and valid arguments for your viewpoint.

For example, your argument is deductively invalid. There is nothing about the claim that philosophers have many different opinions that necessitates that Philosophy is just words devoid of content. If you had done philosophy you would understand how logic works and you could make a coherent argument. Your inability to think properly is why you need to study philosophy.

>utilitarianism not the first reply in the thread

kyselves

>Those philosophers
>Pessimists
You haven't read any of their work, have you?

If you believe that God ensures that your senses can be trusted such that sensory experience matches reality (whatever THAT is), how do you deal with all the instances and scenarios in which a person cannot trust her own senses?
What will happen to your when your brain starts shitting itself? Are you going to lose all faith in God and go completely mad as soon as you experience hypnopompic nightmares, double dreams, deja-vu (interpreted as prophecy), phantom limb, allochiria or somatoparaphrenia, let alone a full-fledged mental disorder with polythematic delusions?

>articulate, well-reasoned argument about why you're wrong
>way more than what the original "philosophy... is just words justifying opinions!!! EPIC XD" retard argument actually deserved
>0 replies

Veeky Forums, everyone

Utilitarianism is a philosophy

Btfo