Hi David T. and Group:
DLT wrote:
> This seems to me just another way of asking “Philosophy: Who needs it?". The
> best answer I've found so far is one by Ayn Rand:
>
> ...“Most men spend their days struggling to evade three questions, the answers
> to which underlie man's every thought, feeling and action whether he is
> consciously aware of it of not: Where am I? How do I know it? What should I
> do?..... There is only one science that can answer them: philosophy.
> Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man's
> relationship to existence... As a human being, you have no choice about the
> fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your
> philosophy by a conscious, rational ..process or let your subconscious
> accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions...” (Ayn Rand, Philosophy:
> Who needs it. An address given to the graduating class of West Point on March
> 6, 1974 published after her death in a book by the same name)
Glad you referred to Ayn Rand's essay, David. It got me started on
my own philosophical journey many years ago. My only quarrel
with Rand is her separation of man from existence which is the old
subject-object split. Fortunately, Pirsig came along to show
another way to view experience. But, Rand's essay on why we
need philosophy can't be beat. At the root of all human thought and
actions are philosophical assumptions, including the assumption
that philosophy can safely be ignored.
Platt
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