JavaScript is not available.

i get this feeling of being like... constipated and angry at the same time when around people who've gone through any formal philosophy, you can't get through a single idea without them dropping eight different philosophers on you, and im just like YES BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK

264

but idk how to engage with it because i haven't read those philosophers because reading those philosophers is a kind of masochism i have not yet ascended to, and so I'm in an awkward position of "I have no idea what you're saying but I know I hate it"

164

by this point if i'm at a party and i'm like 'yea but what's it like to feel the sense of thinking' and then someone says 'yeah well nietzsche said-' i just am done, immediately, like my next battle plan is to figure out how to erase philosophers from their mind

140

i can't tell if they're doing some weird actually original and good mental jujitsu while using other philosopher's ideas as pawns, or if they are actually completely unoriginal and think that good thinking is just knowing what other good thinkers think. I can't tell.

6:08 AM · Oct 18, 2019

Replying to

As much as I shit on the rationalist community, this is a big part of why I love them - on a whole, they're a level of well-read and nerdy and *don't* pull the philosopher namedropping card. It's glorious.

157

Replying to

I think what you’re talking about can happen in many fields - it’s the Zen concept of “beginner’s mind”: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." If we’re overstudied we can become rigid and unoriginal in our thinking.

Replying to

and

There are ways to study lots and also maintain beginners mind, but it’s challenging

Replying to

Try to get them to elaborate on said person's ideas. If they can't, and they only back quotes up with other quotes, then you have your answer.

Replying to

I think it’s largely just an appeal to authority.

Replying to

I think considering most knowledge is built upon previous knowledge, this isn’t surprising nor should it be criticized? I don’t know. Also philosophy is the oldest “science” so it shouldn’t be surprising that someone already said it, and said it better.

Dr. Poop Muscles, PhD

@Space_Boy_Ben

Replying to