RE: Is philosophy a science? - With an example involving a bear (what more could you want?!)
My first experience with philosophy wasn't really pleasant.
Since very little I always either asked questions non stop or was silently observing everything around me. Well most children ask a lot of questions when they are little, and my parents were the ones to suffer the brunt of my questioning. They started calling me "Дървен философ", it literally means "wooden philosopher". It can either mean someone whose stubbornly philosophizing about meaningless stuff or someone who knows too much.
That was my first bad experience with philosophy since they started dismissing all my questions or arguments with that expression or just saying "Stop philosophizing". It's really convenient since that way you can dismiss any argument that you don't like. I think I gradually stopped asking questions when I was a becoming a teenager since I started realizing that I wasnt asking the right people and they didn't know the answers nor were they honest enough with themselfs to admit it or even think about it.
My second experience with philosophy was in school. Just before University there was a subject about philosophy and I remember being quite exited about it since I liked questioning everything and argumenting. But it turned out to be just History of Philosophy and we just had to "learn" aka memorize the different theories of "great philosophers". I can say I'm pretty bad at memorizing and especially stuff that doesnt make sense to me or I disagree with so that was kinda painful.
The things I remember of those theories was that there were too many assumptions, too many things taken for granted. Maybe it was just left out and we were tought only the "core" or "most important stuff". I dont know and it got even worse when we got to the "christian philosophy" aka propaganda. So as I told you in a earlier post, the only famous philosopher I like is Socrates. Maybe I just dont know them well enough.
Those were my experiences with Philosophy.
I'm curious if you had a favourite philosopher. And if you do, why?
Thanks for sharing! Yes, I can really understand why you would not like philosophy. When I went to an 'Open Day' when looking what to study at university, I went to a philosophy day, and I hated it! They were just debating for the sake of debating, not listening to the other people. I felt sick. So I didn't start out to study philosophy. And I'm glad I just kept on reading on my own. Because having the background, knowing what has been said, is very important. But I would never been able to do that for three years - I'm also super bad at memorizing. But I did end up studying philosophy at masters level and then a PhD - that's where the fun things started. A little at least. The environment where you can really ask the questions you want to ask, it has a lot to do with meeting the right people & teachers, I so agree.
I hope you will find that environment, in which you won't have to explain why Socrates is your favorite philosopher :)
I will think about what is my favorite, will probably take more than a comment to answer that interesting question!
So... please keep asking those questions! that's the only way to meet the people who like those questions...
Yes please do. You can make a post about your favourite one and why. I will try my best to debunk all of his theories(insert evil laugh here). I might even like him/her in the end.
Challenge accepted! ;)