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7045266 No.7045266 [Reply] [Original]

Who is allowed to rightfully refer to himself as a philosopher?

I only ask because my new theology professor begins each of his classes with, "Good morning, philosophers." I might be putting too much value in the title, but I don't feel right calling myself a philosopher just because I've finished a few classes and have a handful of half-baked existential opinions. I also feel strange when the professor himself refers to himself as a philosopher.

What qualities/achievements are required of a professed philosopher? Am I just being autistic?

>> No.7045279

>>7045266
I tend to think that you're only a philosopher if you've made an original contribution to the field. I wouldn't call myself a philosopher and I have a degree in it.

>> No.7045281

philosopher is one with philosophem, someone who loves knowledge.

whatever the fuck that means is a philosophical issue. but if you care and are interested in investigating and questioning everything you believe then you can be a philosopher.

>> No.7045284
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7045284

>You see those who are wise in their own eyes?
>There is more hope for fools than for them.

>> No.7045285

>>7045266
He is challenging you, how is that not obvious ?

>> No.7045289

>>7045266
You made me laugh OP. Good one.

>> No.7045304

You have the right to call yourself a philosopher. I have the right to call you a dickhead.

>> No.7045306

>>7045279

I had a different professor last semester that had a doctorate and had several published books and even more essays, and the self-profession sounded right coming from him, so I agree that a 'philosopher' should at least make some kind of contribution before he makes the claim.

I'm in the process of earning my degree in it, but I considered switching my major to history, because everybody in the field is so self-absorbed and desperate to become "philosopher hermits," but if I did that, I'd have the same problem with people calling themselves historians.

Somebody should really write rules for this kind of thing.

>>7045285
In what way? He doesn't seem like they type to give that kind of ambiguous challenge, he spends most of his time talking about why Southern Baptism in the best religion in the world, and he means it.

>> No.7045315

>>7045306
>>7045306
Okay, he might just be odd then.

I said this because I am a grad student and I have always been called that through my whole cursus.

In high school, our teacher would call us "apprentice philosophers" to challenge us, and in university, "little philosophers" in a condescending way. The catch was that we had to come up with original thoughts and a contribution to the field, as well as acquire a great knowledge of it's history to be worthy one day of the title.

None of us is there yet

>> No.7045320

>>7045266
>pic
he can't fucking trigger that gun ffs!

>> No.7045322

>>7045306
Hey man, I don't know much about the people in your philosophy department, but maybe if you stopped worrying about how legitimate the people around you are you'd be a little happier.

>> No.7045331

>>7045315
Again, this might just be my romanticization of the title, but I feel like if I were to ever become a philosopher, then the right would come from decades of hard academic study and sacrifice in other parts of my life, and then finally a contribution, and not from the fact that I checked a box on the school website and payed a fee.

I wish I had professors like that. I keep telling myself that things will become more professional and academic the further along I get, but I haven't seen any changes yet.

>> No.7045337

>>7045322
I'm very happy overall, and I am at my happiest when I am in class. I'm not "worried" about their legitimacy, I'm just curious.

>> No.7045354

>>7045331
Well I am not american.
Here the success rate for the philosophy studies is 3% and they are entirely free
It's even lower for the teaching exams. Lower than 1%. we usually need to wait for people to die to have a job

So yes. A decade of hard work, lot of writing lot of reading, lot of conferences and seminars, lots of tutoring, and to have an unrewarding title and a meagre payment. But it's all worth it.

Hopefully you are able to reach greatness as you climb higher in education, but nothing is guaranteed where you live.

>> No.7045484

>>7045331
what do you think is a real philosopher?. what is philosophy contribution for you?, writing a book that fit in philosophy academia?. if you have money from philosophy class?.

>> No.7045494
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7045494

>>7045266

Everybody can consider themselves a philosopher, but only academically recognized thinkers are deemed as true philosophers.

>> No.7045500

>Who is allowed to rightfully refer to himself as a philosopher?
A PhD from a top anglo-saxon university with analytic bent and that has published in top philosophy journals.

>> No.7045512

whoever
who cares?

>> No.7045520 [SPOILER] 
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7045520

>>7045266

philosophy splits into 2 poles: the pole of praxis, the pole of discourse.

today, the philosophers are the teachers of the philosophy, that is to say, the teachers of the history of philosophy. These people produce concepts in the form of books and neglect totally the practice. Philosophy is a job at the university, from 9 to five.

On the other hand, you have the practitioner. He lives his philosophy and perhaps discourses openly in public. They do as they contemplate and meditate. Those people are the greeks of today.

>> No.7045522

My mom calls me honey. Am I legitimately a condiment? I don't know.

>> No.7045527

>>7045266
Semantics.

You care too much for what a thing is called, and too little for what it is.

>> No.7045546

>>7045520
nice. i don´t have the balls to say that but it´s pretty obvious, i think...

>> No.7045589

>>7045527
That's not what semantics are you stupid idiot. Semantics are exactly about the thing(s) name(s) name, not about how they are named---that's taxonomy.

God, there is nothing more irritating than a half-wit spouting "That's just semantics man".

>> No.7045600

>>7045589
If your taxonomy serves no purpose, then it is semantics.

Your idea that some have earned an intangible "right" to be called a "philosopher", and that some have not, but the difficulty in determining precisely what that "right" is, shows that your issue is one of not actually having a working definition of the word "philosopher".

I like φιλοσοφία - one who loves knowledge.

You can disagree, if you please.

>> No.7045633

>>7045354
Tell us what country you are from then shithead.

>> No.7045644

itt: my definition of a word is better than yours

so insightful

>> No.7045716
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7045716

>>7045306
Currently at the start of my junior year, doing a double in History & English; there is some circle-jerking that goes on where people think they can speak from a higher position because they wrote a ten-page paper on Islamic art, but I don't think it's as bad as some of the shit that goes on even in the philosophy department at my own university.

Thankfully enrollment is pretty low at my school, so I can just read philosophy in my own time and drop by and have a good 1-on-1 discussion with a prof.

There's perks to it I guess, being a wallflower and all.

-H.C.

>> No.7045801

>>7045266
If people studying and interested in philosophy, who are starting to see the world through the lens of some philosophical concepts (even if only just as a mental exercise to begin with) can't be called "philosophers", then what should they be called? "Students of philosophy"? That's a bit long winded and unnecessary.
Can't it be the general word for anyone related to or thinking about philosophy, and then other words used to distinguish the elites from plebs?

>> No.7045839

>>7045266
Why the fuck would you care, m8?

>> No.7047161

>>7045266
thinking for yourself already qualifies you as a philosopher IMO

even if it isn't an original thought, as long as you came up with it on your own accord and worked your mind upon it and made your thought completely and truly yours, you are a philosopher.

>> No.7047671

>>7045520
>>7045546

No that's ridiculous.

Teachers of philosophy are not necessarily teachers of the history of philosophy. Often they have their own ideas which they may or may not choose to teach others. Philosophy students, by extention, are not taught the "history of philosophy" but the views and opinions of different philosophers and are expected to write their own ideas about them and, crucially, about the branch of philosophy surrounding them.
The two "poles" you defined overlap so often as to be meaningless.
Furthermore, I must say, the idea that you can define the school of philosophy into those who preach and those who practice (and do it in four lines of text no less) is laughable in the utmost.

What about people who meditate and practice a philosophy but neither teach nor preach it? What about those who just practice one taught to them? What about teachers who produce concepts, understand them, and proceed to disregard all philosophy as nonsense, where do they fall on your chart?

>> No.7048719

ok

>> No.7048781

who cares?

>> No.7049295

>>7048781
how does it feel not to be a philosopher ?

>> No.7049877

>>7045320
The stick is full of technology!

>> No.7050967

>>7048781

25 unique posters to this thread, at minimum.