On 1/19/2003 3:00:49 AM, Alisha Mobley
wrote:

>philosophy seems like a bad
>habit or a communicable
>disease to me. That is, you
>literally get hooked on
>questioning everything.

This is an interesting analogy. Why a BAD
habit? If you question something and the
answers don't come easily or viewed
through a skeptical eye seem
unsatisfactory, haven't you made
progress? Socrates suggested that
realizing one's own ignorance was
necessary in order to aquire wisdom.

Does
>it seem that only the question
>matters, and NOT the answer
>itself?
>
This always puzzles me. People say
things such as "It's not the destination but
the journey that matters." But it seems to
me that if answers are not possible in
philosophy, then it is an excercise in
futility. Of course we might not be able to
get the entire truth about every
philosophical issue, but at least we ought
to be able to say that some answers
seem more likely than others.

>Ok, seriously now, I was
>struck by the notion that
>science is nothing more than
>someone's mythological way of
>explaining the events of the
>world.

Your comment reminded me of the last
item in Ben Stein's recent piece entitled,
"How to Ruin American Enterprise"

12) Elevate mysticism, tribalism,
shamanism and fundamentalism--and
be sure to exclude educated, hardworking
men and women--to an equal status with
technology in the public mind. Make sure
that, in order to pay proper (and politically
correct) respect to all different ethnic
groups in America, you act as if science
were on an equal footing with voodoo and
history with ethnic fable.

http://teach.lanecc.edu/b orrowdalej/ruiningUS.htm


Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu