Confused Philosophy: My take on the world of philosophy - Aristotle's Fear of Death
Confused Philosophy
So if you think this is an introduction into the world of philosophy let me stop you right there, and explain a little further. It's not. Since joining Steemit I have loved reading the #philosophy tag more than any other. So much so that it has encouraged me to delve further into the subject both on Steemit and other sources.
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This series will follow my self introduction into the world of philosophy and associated thoughts. Philosophy as I am finding, is an interesting yet never ending subject that could take a lifetime of energy with no hope of mastering it, but given the Greek meaning of the word philosophy is "love of wisdom". The aim was never to master it but to continue to learn from it. I hope that my thoughts will provoke thoughts in you that will make there way to my comments and in turn will spark additional thoughts in me.
So if all A's are B's and all B's are C's then logically all A's are C's. Could this be the birth of the stereotype? Or have we always compartmentalized people through our own assumptions and Aristotle just created a name for it? Many times a stereotype will hold this is not always the case and this is where this fall's over for me. Lets look at the definition above.
All animals have four legs
The problem with making wide sweeping assumptions and drawing a conclusion from them is that it excludes all other possibilities. So while the conclusion drawn above is true, what happens if you exchange the word dog to another animal like a snake or most insects or any type of bird or fish, they are all animals yet they do not have four legs, therefore the syllogism no longer holds true.
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Let's look at it from another way, and where the title of this post came from, using Aristotle's logic 'All men (A's) are mortal (B's)' & 'All mortals (B's) fear death (C's)' so therefore 'All men (A's) fear death (C's)'. Again I am sure that this does hold true for many but then how does the fear of public speaking rank higher than the fear of death? I know one does not exclude the other but there's something to be said about making assumptions.
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In short while it's OK to make general assumptions, to act on them without further investigation could land you with egg on your face. There are always exceptions to the rule and too many variable to count. What assumptions have you made to later find out didn't hold true? Do you have a good example of a syllogism? Comment below.
The aim for this post series to engage with other Steemian's and develop relationships while challenging my thoughts. If you would like to join me on this journey don't forget to follow me @insideoutlet. My hubby @shai-hulud is also worth a look in and has a wonderful Alphabet Adventure series going.
If you find value in my work an upvote and/or resteem would be greatly appreciated, although never required to read and comment on my post. I look forward to getting to know you all better while debating the in's and out's of life itself.
Welcome to 2018!!! A year for the love of wisdom!
i think that form of logic was considered the first one of it's kind in the world and there's more behind it from simple logic patterns to math. I don't quite know what's behind it but with a simple search you will find whole studies behind it.
Now as far as it concerns your question, most of the assumptions i make tend to be true and if i want to take it a step further if i use the syllogism logic in most of the stereotypes out there statistically i would be right.
some simple syllogisms that comes in my mind are: all cars have wheels, i have a car, my car has wheels and another one
this cake must be a caramel or chocolate one, it's not a chocolate one, then it's a caramel one
finally i guess the rule in order not to make mistakes is not to generalize so much!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. It's definetly way more complicated than I have dedicated above, I hope to expand on my knowledge through the series and update my thinking along the way.
While I can't think of an incorrect syllogism off the top of my head, your post got me thinking back to my days in college when the same professor taught my intro to philosophy and logical calculus classes. He used these same thought processes to breakdown ideas that were pervasive through our society only because they hadn't been looked at so closely in such a long time. There is something to be said for someone delving into philosophy, especially when we are in a time when there is so much focus on tangible production instead of obtaining wisdom. Thanks so much for sharing. BTW, I am a curator with @ocd and would love to nominate your post.
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How exciting. Yes for sure @ocd. Thank you. It is such an interesting topic. I forgot how much fun it was to actively learn new things. I find it fascinating and am loving the steemit community.
This is a fun series! Honestly I think assumptions should be few and far between, for pretty much all the same reasons you list. In the Four Agreements, one of the agreements is explicitly: "make no assumptions" - and following that has actually made me happier because it means I preemptively judge less.
Sometimes you have to judge for safety reasons, but imho generally speaking making assumptions about anything without due experience (or research maybe) limits your true experience of this life which we lead on this planet. Be willing to learn!
Looking forward to more philosophical discussion :D
Thanks for reading! I like It, make no assumptions, it's a very nobal idea yet very hard to do that in real life as I think it's inbred in us. It's a lot of conscious thought. Some of those do keep us safe which is a good thing but others stop us for exploring things that could be worth exploring. See you around the steem train.
it is indeed - and there are certain situations where you probably should make some basic assumptions. But I've found that if you stay open then you're more likely to learn something new! talk soon!
an interesting thought provoking post, that assume saying I use all the time
Thanks for reading.
my pleasure to visit
I like your train of thoughts @insideoutlet, I will follow you for more!
Maybe this essay I published could be interesting to you considering the topic of your post. It's about realising the importance of perspective and perception.
Thanks for taking the time to read it, your essay was very interesting, and on topic as well. Perception is very dependent on the person doing the perceiving. I have followed you now and will check out your other work as it comes through.
Sorry, forgot to actually click the follow button. But followed now.
Interesting. Thanks for you @insideoutlet