Living Ones Philosophy

[Nick_A]

Is there anything more offensive than a philosopher living their philosophy? Modern philosophers should argue with everyone and give speeches about how others should live. It would be insulting for such an intelligent person to actually live their philosophy. I think that is why Susan Sontag remarked in a book review that Simone Weil lived her philosophy. There is something unnatural about doing such a thing. Can you imagine the harm done to institutions of politics, education, and religion, if a majority of philosophers and those who represent them tried to live their philosophy? Perish the thought. Those like Simone Weil should be boiled in oil for setting a bad example and disturbing the peace. Live ones publicly expressed philosophy? How absurd! Susan Sontag wrote:

Yet the person of Simone Weil is here as surely as in any of her other books—the person who is excruciatingly identical with her ideas, the person who is rightly regarded as one of the most uncompromising and troubling witnesses to the modern travail of the spirit.

[Arising_uk]

What on earth makes you think philosophers don't live their philosophy?

[Nick_A]

Arising wrote:

What on earth makes you think philosophers don't live their philosophy?

Well Arising supports society and I guess there could be worse sins. However, there are those who assert that most educational, political, and religious philosophers are guilty of hypocrisy. I know it disturbs the peace to say such things but suppose it is true?

[thedoc]

Arising wrote:

What on earth makes you think philosophers don't live their philosophy?

Well Arising supports society and I guess there could be worse sins. However, there are those who assert that most educational, political, and religious philosophers are guilty of hypocrisy. I know it disturbs the peace to say such things but suppose it is true?

I must disagree with Nick in that I am living, at least in part, my own philosophy. Years ago I was reading Zen and I read that everyone is enlightened, but just doesn't know it. So I reasoned that since I am already enlightened and just don't know it, I would skip all the hard work, and play with my grandchildren.

[Dalek Prime]

I live my philosophy. It's rather simple to. The rest is not an imperative. So whatever I do, the philosophic necessities are performed.

[Nick_A]

Living a philosophy doesn't make one a philosopher. A person's philosophy can be to make as much money as possible to satisfy their greed. That doesn't make them a philosopher. Philosophy is the love of wisdom. The pursuit of wisdom requires suffering the truth. A person may claim to want the truth but instead do things that oppose experience of truth. This hypocrisy is considered normal. They prefer pleasant experiences to truth. Pursuing the love of wisdom is very hard. it is beyond me but I have great admiration for the few who are capable of it. Why bother you ask? Why not indulge in pleasant dreams rather than pursue wisdom or the essence of philosophy? A good question.

"A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams."
Simone Weil -- from Gravity and Grace

[thedoc]

Living a philosophy doesn't make one a philosopher. A person's philosophy can be to make as much money as possible to satisfy their greed. That doesn't make them a philosopher. Philosophy is the love of wisdom. The pursuit of wisdom requires suffering the truth. A person may claim to want the truth but instead do things that oppose experience of truth. This hypocrisy is considered normal. They prefer pleasant experiences to truth. Pursuing the love of wisdom is very hard. it is beyond me but I have great admiration for the few who are capable of it. Why bother you ask? Why not indulge in pleasant dreams rather than pursue wisdom or the essence of philosophy? A good question.

"A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams."
Simone Weil -- from Gravity and Grace

Being a philosopher is a matter of degree, anyone who has a philosophy of life is a philosopher of sorts. Some people contemplate the deeper meanings of life their whole life, and some just do enough to get by. I agree that when you believe one thing and then live the opposite, you are being a hypocrite. Also wisdom comes in many forms and from many sources, if you are just willing to listen.

[Nick_A]

Doc wrote:

Being a philosopher is a matter of degree, anyone who has a philosophy of life is a philosopher of sorts. Some people contemplate the deeper meanings of life their whole life, and some just do enough to get by.

It saddens me that words like love, art, and philosophy, have lost their quality from being watered down so have become basically meaningless. Take art for example. Little jimmy scribbles something and his mother exclaims "my son the artist. He is an artist like Leonardo da Vinci. It is all art.

I know I'm in a minority here but I believe these words have lost their quality and as a result the value of philosophy has been largely lost. It is no longer the pursuit of the love of wisdom but is now the pursuit of self justification That is why for anyone to live their philosophy has a different meaning for me. Most in philosophy are only interested in arguing for self justification. Philosophy IMO has largely lost its unique quality and purpose.

[sthitapragya]

What on earth makes you think philosophers don't live their philosophy?

He means they don't live Simone Weil's philosophy. And just like his One True God, Nick has his One True Philosopher. If you don't follow that philosophy, you are not doing philosophy. So you are not living your philosophy which even though you don't know is Simone Weil's philosophy. None of you do. Try and keep up.

[Nick_A]

sthit wrote:

He means they don't live Simone Weil's philosophy. And just like his One True God, Nick has his One True Philosopher. If you don't follow that philosophy, you are not doing philosophy. So you are not living your philosophy which even though you don't know is Simone Weil's philosophy. None of you do. Try and keep up.

This is what I mean. When a person glorifies the quality of blind denial in themselves there is no hypocrisy since everything is denied. Simone Weil is just an example of someone who lived their philosophy. It isn't a matter of agreeing with her but in making the same impartial attempts to verify reality. This requires humility which is offensive to blind denial since it takes away that feeling of self importance that comes with blind denial. Blind denial has destroyed a lot of the value of philosophy for the young. The process of this destruction is called secular education.

“The supreme paradox of all thought is the attempt to discover something that thought cannot think.” ― Søren Kierkegaard.

Can you imagine some kid reading this who makes the mistake of asking his secular prof. about it. The prof would call the office and before you know it their would be six others with fangs dripping screaming "Impossible! deny, deny." So the kid learns to keep quiet and just parrot the party line so to speak. As far as philosophy goes: "another one bites the dust."

[Dalek Prime]

Living a philosophy doesn't make one a philosopher.

Well, what's the bloody point of the OP then? You never asked the question, if living a.philosophy makes one a philosopher. Stop changing the target.

[Nick_A]

D P wrote: Nick_A wrote:
Living a philosophy doesn't make one a philosopher.

Well, what's the bloody point of the OP then? You never asked the question, if living a.philosophy makes one a philosopher. Stop changing the target.

Apparently for you putting a bandage on a wound makes a person a doctor because doctor's put bandages on wounds. That is what has happened to philosophy. Just because a person practices a cause in life like making money which they call their philosophy doesn't make them a philosopher who by definition is attracted to the love of wisdom

[Lacewing]

... [same stuff over and over]...

Seems like you're here to continually rant about what is wrong with everyone else, and what is wrong with the world, the trouble with this, the trouble with that, and all the blindness, and what saddens you, and what is required, and what is destroyed...

hey... you could be in a Pink Floyd song!

You don't KNOW for everyone else, Nick. You're just blabbing your own story from your own limited view.

[Nick_A]

Lacewing wrote

Seems like you're here to continually rant about what is wrong with everyone else, and what is wrong with the world, the trouble with this, the trouble with that, and all the blindness, and what saddens you, and what is required, and what is destroyed...

hey... you could be in a Pink Floyd song!

You don't KNOW for everyone else, Nick. You're just blabbing your own story from your own limited view.

The first step in the pursuit of the love of wisdom or the goal of philosophy is to experience and admit to the reality of the human condition which puts us in opposition to ourselves. Most prefer to accept and justify it. Yet there is a minority concerned with how to awaken to the reality of the situation. That is the next step. The first is to impartially verify the human condition for what it is and the second is how to escape from its psychological prison. You apparently prefer to accept and justify it. This is fine and you are with the majority. Why ridicule the minority?

[Lacewing]

Why ridicule the minority?

Oh yes... I forgot to include that you like to talk about "the few" who are able to do/recognize such-and-such... and of course you include yourself in these few... and no one else on this site is in that special few. We've heard it so many times from others. If only you recognized the "crowd" you are actually a part of. It is a crowd that crows of its own awareness/superiority/rightness, and blindly denies the magnificence and validity of all else and all others. Which ironically and certainly must be the greatest ignorance there can be.