First of all, I'd like to quote Verbal on this point: "Why bother posting here, then?"
Now onto the meat of the issue. What would you prefer? Would you prefer it if we had a world in which the only way to think about things was to accept a value given to them? If we lived in a world in which somebody says "I saw this" and we blindly obey it? Philosophy serves the purpose of making people think about the universe and our place in it. It makes us question concepts, from the simplest right up to the most complex. A world without philosophy breaks down to a system where all we have is people stating "truths". Perhaps we should be a more scientific society, dealing only in exactly what we see. Like before Copernicus, when we knew for sure that the Earth stood still in the centre of the universe and everything moved around us.
There is no such thing as absolute fact - at least, no such thing which humanity can ever achieve. Everything is questionable. Nothing is ever certain. Ideas change radically with each new phenomenon discovered. Without philosophy, we have nothing.
I never said there was anything wrong with philosophy. I just said that it had no point.
Philosophy is not required to question believed truths. If it was, how could the first philosopher have started. He would be the first to philosophize, but he could only do it if it had already been done. Your argument is illogical and thus void.
1984 - George Orwell Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy" - Douglas Adams The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkein The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkein The Prince - Machiavelli Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
"All You Zombies" - Robert Heinlein (short story)
The Robot, Empire, and Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
That's just a couple. Read them all, if you haven't already.
No. The point is that there is no point. Which is not to say there is no point. There is a point and that is: that there is no point! Get it?
No, the point is intellectual masturbation. Anything philisophical is speculation at best and there can never be any evidence of philosophy having any truth value, whether true or false. However, people seem to philosophize in order to discover truths. Since philosophy cannot have any truth value, it is impossible to discover truths through philosophy. Therefore, it has no point and it thus pointless.
Your last point is one that I wholeheartedly agree with! The government should not be concerned with the free market. Laissez-faire is a good term, not a bad one (Like we are learning in US History right now)! Leave the governement out, and the fruits of capitalism shall be ours!
You're learning laissez-faire now? What grade are you in, seventh?
Laissez-faire capitalism is only good for the giant corporations. First, the large corporation buys out everyone that makes the product they sell. For example, let's say you are a giant corporation selling shoes. Under laissez-faire capitalism, you could buy out all the shoe-makers, provided you had enough money. Then, since you control the entire process, you can charge minimal amounts at your store, and exorbitant amounts to other people who want to sell shoes but aren't affiliated with you.
Then, once you control the entire process, you can charge as little as you want in your stores. If it costs you $1 to make a shoe, you can charge $1.50 for it in your stores, but $10 when selling to other stores. To make a profit, they'd have to raise their prices to ridiculous amounts, and no one would shop there. They'd go bankrupt.
Now that you have no competition, you can start charging $10 for your shoes. People will be forced to buy from you if they want shoes, which everyone needs. You make insane profits, and the consumer suffers.
However, with government regulations, you can't control the entire shoemaking process. Therefore, you can't obscenely overcharge to your competition. Therefore, your competition survives.
There are a copule of reasons Wal-Mart is annihilating its competition, even with government regulations. Firstly, they pay their workers very little salary and give them no benefits. They can do this because a majority of the people they hire are illegal immigrants or other people who are willing to work for less than minimum wage because it means they can stay in America.
Also, Wal-Mart makes very little profit on an individual item. They keep the costs of items down to almost the level they buy them on. This makes people want to buy from them because it's cheaper than anywhere else. That's how they make their profit: volume.
Because Wal-Mart has such low prices, they send other stores out of business. Caldor is a notable example of this, and K-Mart may well soon be. Toys R Us is another example of a store driven bankrupt by Wal-Mart.
Once their competition is gone, Wal-Mart can go to the people they buy from and set prices. They can make it so the producers of a certain item are forced to lose money selling to Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart is the only place still in business. Therefore, they keep getting the products for less and less, so they can charge less and less.
As for the perfect government, I believe it would be a blend between Marxism, an Orwellian government, and the set-up in Lois Lowry's The Giver.
The Sine Graph inspires the goblin to get a PhD. in Mathematics and Physics from Cambridge, and use his new Hawking-like intellect to open up a subspace rift, which begins to suck in the Treefolk!
Next weapon: The concept of chaos.
The treefolk uses his encyclopedic knowledge of chaos to distract the goblin while he violates Kate Beckinsale.
The treekfolk uses its magic action figure animating powers to animate Spider Man, who then saves the day, regardless of whatever is going on around him, even if it is physically impossible.
I never said there was anything wrong with philosophy. I just said that it had no point.
Philosophy is not required to question believed truths. If it was, how could the first philosopher have started. He would be the first to philosophize, but he could only do it if it had already been done. Your argument is illogical and thus void.
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy" - Douglas Adams
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkein
The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkein
The Prince - Machiavelli
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
"All You Zombies" - Robert Heinlein (short story)
The Robot, Empire, and Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
That's just a couple. Read them all, if you haven't already.
Nonfiction < Fiction
Your point was pointless. I am proving the futility and pointlessness of philosophy by example.
Edit: In your first post you supported my point that there is no point.
No, the point is intellectual masturbation. Anything philisophical is speculation at best and there can never be any evidence of philosophy having any truth value, whether true or false. However, people seem to philosophize in order to discover truths. Since philosophy cannot have any truth value, it is impossible to discover truths through philosophy. Therefore, it has no point and it thus pointless.
So is this post. Spam Warning.
You're learning laissez-faire now? What grade are you in, seventh?
Laissez-faire capitalism is only good for the giant corporations. First, the large corporation buys out everyone that makes the product they sell. For example, let's say you are a giant corporation selling shoes. Under laissez-faire capitalism, you could buy out all the shoe-makers, provided you had enough money. Then, since you control the entire process, you can charge minimal amounts at your store, and exorbitant amounts to other people who want to sell shoes but aren't affiliated with you.
Then, once you control the entire process, you can charge as little as you want in your stores. If it costs you $1 to make a shoe, you can charge $1.50 for it in your stores, but $10 when selling to other stores. To make a profit, they'd have to raise their prices to ridiculous amounts, and no one would shop there. They'd go bankrupt.
Now that you have no competition, you can start charging $10 for your shoes. People will be forced to buy from you if they want shoes, which everyone needs. You make insane profits, and the consumer suffers.
However, with government regulations, you can't control the entire shoemaking process. Therefore, you can't obscenely overcharge to your competition. Therefore, your competition survives.
There are a copule of reasons Wal-Mart is annihilating its competition, even with government regulations. Firstly, they pay their workers very little salary and give them no benefits. They can do this because a majority of the people they hire are illegal immigrants or other people who are willing to work for less than minimum wage because it means they can stay in America.
Also, Wal-Mart makes very little profit on an individual item. They keep the costs of items down to almost the level they buy them on. This makes people want to buy from them because it's cheaper than anywhere else. That's how they make their profit: volume.
Because Wal-Mart has such low prices, they send other stores out of business. Caldor is a notable example of this, and K-Mart may well soon be. Toys R Us is another example of a store driven bankrupt by Wal-Mart.
Once their competition is gone, Wal-Mart can go to the people they buy from and set prices. They can make it so the producers of a certain item are forced to lose money selling to Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart is the only place still in business. Therefore, they keep getting the products for less and less, so they can charge less and less.
As for the perfect government, I believe it would be a blend between Marxism, an Orwellian government, and the set-up in Lois Lowry's The Giver.
Next card: a paperclip
The rat eats the jellybean. It then gets terrible gas, which makes the Treefolk vomit.
Next card: atomic bomb
Glorious Anthem > Morale
You have Moarlity Shift in your hand, with the mana to cast it.
Prodigal Sorcerer > Anaba Shaman, assuming they're both in play.
The treefolk uses his encyclopedic knowledge of chaos to distract the goblin while he violates Kate Beckinsale.
Next card: A pocket spy glass.
Next card: Geranium