Philosophy is the highest form of thought.
WARNING: The formatted article ends here. Past this point, the foundations are still being poured and you run the risk of falling into a logical pit or getting trapped under a sentence fragment.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN PERIL!Ideologies are distractions from high philosophy
marxism, libertarianism, etc.
I didn't write this yet but I will get around to it someday.
Philosophy compared to other goals of life
The homeless man looking for a job is looked down by the working-man looking for security.
The working man is easily laughed at by the scientist or artist, ignoring material security and seeking a higher accomplishment
The scientist and artist are appreciated by the philosopher, attempting to integrate everything people do into a framework.
As a philosopher frees himself from ideologies, he comes up against linguistic barriers. Language unavoidably reifies. It is impossible to understand, or explain, human nature perfectly because you are always making a generalization. The philosopher comes to understand the unknowable yet knowable, that is called God; and with this, after so much intellectual fuss, comes the practical understanding of religion.
Major philosophical questions
- Why does human nature suck, and is it helpful or possible to "fix" it?
- How do you measure success for an individual, community, or culture?
- "happiness"/minimal suffering
- Can't be happy all the time, but feeling that things are set up the right way, and your accomplishments are genuine & important
- duty fulfilled
- to God, Buddha, Nature, etc. Religion and culture instill definitions of "the right way" and "accomplishment", and thus this definition is in constant communication with the practical goal of "happiness".
- material security
- a simplistic goal which is often at war with these other goals
The goal of Buddhism is not Buddhism but perfect unfiltered understanding.