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Philosophical Questions
May. 20th, 2006 02:51 pmI've been wondering lately whether there are any genuinely philosophical questions. What sets apart the questions considered by philosophers seems, to me, to be their vagueness. Philosophical questions seem to comprise several questions at once. They can be taken, usually, in several different ways, none of which is as mysterious as the generally-phrased question seems to be. This is an unpopular view of philosophy, but it could be a good thing for philosophers to do to help themselves and others to understand what they are asking when they ask one of these questions.
The troublesome thing about this view of philosophy is that it seems reductionistic. It dissolves seemingly meaningful philosophical questions into a bunch of ordinary ones that have none of the meaning or mystery of the original. On the other hand, one might say that the mystery of the original question was prompted by something real and interesting--some features of the world, which don't need to be answered, exactly, but accepted.
One can also ask why we ask philosophical questions, what is it about our relationship to the world and to our concepts, that makes us do this. I suppose this is the philosophical question I am most interested in. This makes it hard to find a method, rather than just insight.
The second (general) thing philosophy may be useful for is to make sure the descriptions of the world given by philosophers and others are the best ones to give. (There are as many criteria for 'best' as there are philosophers. I am not sure what I mean by it; but if I knew, I would also have a method.)
The troublesome thing about this view of philosophy is that it seems reductionistic. It dissolves seemingly meaningful philosophical questions into a bunch of ordinary ones that have none of the meaning or mystery of the original. On the other hand, one might say that the mystery of the original question was prompted by something real and interesting--some features of the world, which don't need to be answered, exactly, but accepted.
One can also ask why we ask philosophical questions, what is it about our relationship to the world and to our concepts, that makes us do this. I suppose this is the philosophical question I am most interested in. This makes it hard to find a method, rather than just insight.
The second (general) thing philosophy may be useful for is to make sure the descriptions of the world given by philosophers and others are the best ones to give. (There are as many criteria for 'best' as there are philosophers. I am not sure what I mean by it; but if I knew, I would also have a method.)
