On 3/29/06, graywolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have always equated philosophy with the study of opinions. If you say > it it is an opinion; if you write it in a thick book, especially if you > did it a long time ago, it is philosophy. BTW my Meanderings webpages > are mostly philosophical.
I think you're on to the popular definition of the word, Tom. There seems to be an idea out there that equates philosophy with sophistry or rhetoric or debate or some such thing. In fact, I'd agree that on a personal level, philosophy can be equated with "world view", "doctine", "personal ethics" or "set of personal beliefs". However, philosophy is also an academic pursuit, a structured and rational study of such concepts as ethics, reality, existence, our place in the world. Despite what some have said here, there can be overlap between science and some types of philosophy, especially logical positivism. As an academic pursuit, it's certainly more than "a study of opinions"; I wouldn't dismiss it in terms of "if you write it in a thick book it's philosophy". To my mind, that would dismiss the work of some of the greatest thinkers the world has seen. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
