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17983827 No.17983827 [Reply] [Original]

How do I become an actual philosopher and think for myself?

I read a lot, but I feel like all am doing is just absorbing other people's thought processes and thinking patterns without forming my own.
Is there a specific reading list that allows one to form a "thinking mind"? Like if you read books on carpentry and wood working, you would get the basics that allow you to make your own shit. Are there books like that for observation and critical thinking?

>> No.17983833

Live your life out in the world and experience all sorts of things and meet with all sorts of people

>> No.17983842

>>17983827
Find your own problem.

>> No.17983848

>>17983827
It really comes from practice.

While you're reading a book on carpentry you should try out the concepts, see where they are wrong, see where they are right, see what can be done better.

The people who wrote these guides had practice, and have shared their knowledge with you.

This is the same thing for philosophy, if you are to live by a philosophy, and test it, and try it out, you will find out if it works or not.

>> No.17983923

>>17983848
I like your thinking, but now what I am wondering is whether there are books on how to best extract information from the every day life as the other posters said and from the Applied Philosophy approach you have suggested.

I guess I am merely yet another symptom of this generation's desire to get the best results and as fast as possible.

>> No.17984124

>>17983827
You must insist on yourself

>> No.17984192

>>17983827
>Are there books like that for observation and critical thinking?
Bumping this question.

I'm guessing formal logic is a must? I never realized "if B explains C and A causes B, then A does NOT necessarily explain C" before I had read it. Or maybe I read it the opposite way around idk

>> No.17984266

> He asks others how to think for himself.
You are never going to make it.

>> No.17984380

>>17984266
Why reinvent the wheel, though?
If someone found the most efficient system for doing something, why go through the process all over again just to come to the same conclusion?

>> No.17984386

>>17984380
Because you're not an NPC and you're better than having the way paved for you.

>> No.17984389

>>17984380
> Why reinvent the wheel, though?
Never. Going. To. Make. It.

>> No.17984396
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17984396

>>17984380
“Suppose Professor Hardy came to me and said, ‘Wittgenstein, I’ve made a great discovery. I’ve found that...’ I would say, ‘I am not a mathematician, and therefore I won’t be surprised at what you say. For I cannot know what you mean until I know how you’ve found it.’ We have no right to be surprised at what he tells us. For although he speaks English, yet the meaning of what he says depends upon the calculations he has made.”
- Wittgenstein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics (Cambridge 1939).

>> No.17984400

>>17984396
What I mean by posting this is... the way to discovering how to think independently is precisely the way of coming to think independently.

>> No.17984412

>>17984400
Here's how I did it...

I keep journals. I ask questions and I try to answer them myself.

Just ask questions and try to answer them. The hard part is remaining honest... which is something you'll have to develop as you grow.

>> No.17984437

It's essential to read others' thoughts. The philosophizing comes from making connections/conclusions from these thoughts, maybe in a way not done before.

>> No.17984446

>>17983827
What you do in college is write a lot of papers engaging with the ideas of not only the philosopher but also the secondary literature by scholars of that philosopher.

Find a specific argument that interests you and then some published articles for or against that argument, then make your own argument citing those experts.

https://philosophy.fas.harvard.edu/files/phildept/files/brief_guide_to_writing_philosophy_paper.pdf

>> No.17984469

>>17983827
Free thinking is anti-philosophical. Stop seeking your own view and start searching for the right view. Consider yourself as knowing less than anyone else, and desire to be convinced of the superior argument; however, hold all arguments to the strictest standards and quell the influence of your emotions. Reject the plausible for the necessary.

>> No.17984475

>>17983827
The book you're looking for is Prior Analytics by Aristotle.

>> No.17984484
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17984484

>>17984446
> college teaches you how to think for yourself
kek

>> No.17984500

>>17984484
I didn't say that. But the only way most people can "become a philosopher" is to deeply engage with the work of other philosophers and experts on them.

>> No.17984799

>>17984412
Yeah this, journals and introspection helps a lot.

>> No.17984804

>>17984500
That’s literally the only way, you can’t join in the conversation of philosophy without knowing what others have already said. People who try to come up with novel stuff will more than likely repeat something that’s already been said.

>> No.17984807

>>17984500
In my view, there are no academic philosophers, and only very few real philosophers (ie non-academic) these days. Academic philosophy is just a children's playground where grown men LARP as their favourite philosophers (Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, etc., it's all equally pathetic)

>> No.17984849

>>17984380
Because you're learning a skill, not a set of facts. You can't learn skills like you can learn what year Napoleon was born in. People can give you advice on how to ride a bike, but you'll never learn how to do it unless you actually go out and try and fail until you get it right.

>> No.17984876

>>17983827
First, learn logic. Then find some philosophical topic you're interested in and really think about it. Figure out what implications it has, deconstruct some arguments you find and see if they're valid, or construct an argument about it on your own.

>> No.17985559

>>17984807
You sound like a retard desu.

>> No.17985635

>>17983827
>an actual philosopher
By reading and writing about philosophical topics. A lot. It isn't a job or a hobby, it is a devotion.
>think for myself?
Not the same thing. Critical thinking either takes time to emerge naturally, or you can get it very early (relatively) if you read a lot, are introspective and relatively high IQ. I'm not entirely sure developing it early is that great of a thing either.