Firstly, the idea that armchair philosophy is in some sense limited, and there should be an empirical component.
Second, the idea of leaning into an ideology to learn how to lean out.... it points to something deeper about having to go *through* a thing to be able to get out of it the other end. Thanks for writing!
You write, "As I shared aloud the thoughts that led to this essay, my wife asked if I had given up on ideas. I responded, “I love philosophy!” So the answer is that, of course, I still love ideas, thinking, figuring things out."
We might reason that the best philosophy is the one that most closely mirrors the real world. So what is the real world? The real world overwhelmingly consists of space at every scale. Therefore, the best philosophy would seemingly overwhelming consist of nothing, silence, the void. By such reasoning one can use philosophy to pull the rug out from under philosophy. Philosophy, eating it's own tail.
But what if one was born with an incurably philosophical mind, and can do nothing to change one's genetic inheritance? In this case, one can respect and accept what one was born to do, and go ahead and do it, without assigning it much importance.
From there some people may conclude that if philosophy is to be stripped of it's importance, then they will choose some other enterprise to engage in. And that seems a wise decision, because if one can choose to not philosophize, perhaps one is not really a philosopher after all.
I love so many parts of this, Joel.
Firstly, the idea that armchair philosophy is in some sense limited, and there should be an empirical component.
Second, the idea of leaning into an ideology to learn how to lean out.... it points to something deeper about having to go *through* a thing to be able to get out of it the other end. Thanks for writing!
You write, "As I shared aloud the thoughts that led to this essay, my wife asked if I had given up on ideas. I responded, “I love philosophy!” So the answer is that, of course, I still love ideas, thinking, figuring things out."
We might reason that the best philosophy is the one that most closely mirrors the real world. So what is the real world? The real world overwhelmingly consists of space at every scale. Therefore, the best philosophy would seemingly overwhelming consist of nothing, silence, the void. By such reasoning one can use philosophy to pull the rug out from under philosophy. Philosophy, eating it's own tail.
But what if one was born with an incurably philosophical mind, and can do nothing to change one's genetic inheritance? In this case, one can respect and accept what one was born to do, and go ahead and do it, without assigning it much importance.
From there some people may conclude that if philosophy is to be stripped of it's importance, then they will choose some other enterprise to engage in. And that seems a wise decision, because if one can choose to not philosophize, perhaps one is not really a philosopher after all.