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What is your philosophy?

Tricky

Briefly immortal
Tricky
Joined
Nov 24, 2001
Messages
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I find it interesting that some here put themselves (occasionally) and others (frequently) in distinct philosophical camps. You're a materialist, a theist, an empiricist etc. Pretty obviously, no person fits into a single philosophical mold (or mould, for you Brits). When I speak of "my philosophy", it is implicit that I am only referring to that part of my philosophy which deals with the topic at hand. But do I have a core philosophy which more-or-less guides the other aspects of my philosophy? I'm definately a materialist (though I only discovered the name for it when I joined the boards a few years ago.) I'm also strongly humanist, decidedly environmentalist (but not animal rights), and politically centrist.

What would you say if someone asked you, without context, "What is your philosophy?".
 
I'm a pragmatist. I believe that the value of any idea or proposition should be determined solely by examining its observable consequences. In other words, ideas which have no practical utility in the real world are useless. For this reason, I find both materialism and idealism to be completely silly positions to take.

I think it's a pretty good general outlook, and applies to a wide range of topics.

Jeremy
 
I generally tell people that I have no core philosophy. I have a few mantras, like "Do what feels right, and don't hurt others, if you can avoid it", "Experience for experience's sake, and believe for belief's sake", "Never buy what you can get for free", etc. But those aren't really philosophical, are they?
 
I'm a hardcore apathist. After careful consideration of any issue, I conclude that I don't care, and then join the dr, if I may, for another drink.
 
Tricky said:

What would you say if someone asked you, without context, "What is your philosophy?".
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I'm a humanist with a strong commitment to personal freedom. Furthermore, I think the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" mantra is good, too bad Jesus and the christians had to steal that idea (an idea they rarely live).
 
I don't want to join any philosophy that would have me as a member.
 
I would say something like "Well I mostly sympathize with the late Wittgenstein and late Analytic style non-empiricist neopragmatist philosophers -- specifically Sellars and McDowell - but I have serious doubts about a McDowellian idealism even though it makes reconciling a truely normative virtue ethics with science (which I would take to be a laudable goal) much easier, and similar doubts about the coherence of some of Sellars' later work and I am deeply suspicious of many naturalistic semantics." This has the benefit of both being reasonably accurate (at least on the surface) and making the person wonder off and leave me alone in future.
 
Tricky said:
What would you say if someone asked you, without context, "What is your philosophy?".
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Sometimes, sh!t happens for no reason at all. Like when you trip over a crack in the sidewalk, or you miss the step when going up stairs. Don't waste time worrying about it.
 
Re: Re: What is your philosophy?

pgwenthold said:
Sometimes, sh!t happens for no reason at all. Like when you trip over a crack in the sidewalk, or you miss the step when going up stairs. Don't waste time worrying about it.
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You know what I hate even more? When you're going downstairs in the dark, or carrying something big, and you think there's one more step, but there's not, and your foot slams really hard into the floor and you look dumb. That's my philosophy.

Jeremy
 
Re: Re: Re: What is your philosophy?

toddjh said:
You know what I hate even more? When you're going downstairs in the dark, or carrying something big, and you think there's one more step, but there's not, and your foot slams really hard into the floor and you look dumb. That's my philosophy.
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Sh!t happens, dude. Don't fret it.
 
For a more serious answer to the question (sorry, uruk):

I'd have to say that, as with most things, it depends on the context of the question. In terms of salvation, I'd say I'm a humanist. In terms of my stance on reality, I'd say I'm probably a naturalist with leanings towards (but not necessarily strict adherence to) materialism. In terms of decision making, I tend to favor systematic analysis over intuition (but not always).

I'm sure there are probably other plausable answers to the question, but that's all I've got for right now.
 
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