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Special interest in philosophy?

gouldgrl

gouldgrl

Well-Known Member
There are a lot of threads here, but I haven't seen anything about a special interest in philosophy. Based on my research, lots of Aspies gravitate toward philosophy because we are more obsessed with finding truth than are people in the general population.

I love exploring the "big questions" of life. I think philosophy is the foundation of most every other inquiry. My favorite contemporary philosopher is Alasdair MacIntyre.

Any other philosophy geeks out there?
 
Yes, I think I fall into that category. I have spent the last 25 years reading great works of fiction in search of answers to the fundamental questions in life that haunt me. I hate to believe that everything is just random and that my own existence has no meaning to me or anyone else in the universe and that when I die I will simply cease to exists for eternity. I know I am not alone in these thoughts and so I have read and studied the works of great authors and philosophers who have tried to find meaning in everyday existence. Books like "Ulysses" by Joyce, "Sound and the Fury" and "The Stranger" by Camus really resonate for me as well as much older books like "The Canterbury Tales", the great tragedies of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson and the prophecies and poetry of Blake, Byron and Shelley. For straight philosophy, I enjoy Camus, Sartre, Swedenborg but I really gravitate more towards fiction, drama and poetry and sources of inspiration and meaning. I don't know it that makes me a philosophy "geek" or a literary "nut". You can be the judge :)
 
I read a fair share of philosophy books, and pretty much had a strong interest in it, since I had it in high school as a subject. I wrote a paper about artificial intelligence once for said subject (Artificial intelligence and human behaviour, primarily used Searle's material as source paper).

If it weren't for the useless application of studying philosophy at university (the best thing one can do, is become a teacher), I'd probably attempt that. Chances are I'd just have a degree and be in the same situation as I am now, I rather not even follow a program (which works better for me anyway; schools always were a mess with their obligations)

I don't read philosophy for "the big questions" I think, I'm more interested in random small dilemma's. And I do prefer some application instead of just having theory over "nothing". Usually I'm reading at least one of the "philosophy and [insert pop-culture franchise here]" books. Currently reading Philosophy and Dexter, which deals with morality and ethics amongst other things. Probably I read those books a lot since I can relate to said subjects more (I have a rather big interest in popculture; especially movies, comics and a fair share of series), than any written fictional work that has philosophic undertones.

I don't have any favorite philosophers generally speaking, I think I rather have subjects of interest.
 
I agree that we can probe the meaning of our own existence through all manner of literature: fiction, poetry, theatre, cinema. Timeless works of literature are timeless precisely because they speak to the basic questions of life in almost every generation. I am duly impressed that you've read "Ulysses"! I wrote a research paper in college about its printing and publication history, but I confess I didn't get very far in my own reading of that novel. Like the Benjy section in "Sound and the Fury," I found the stream-of-consciousness narrative in "Ulysses" too cumbersome. But perhaps I ought to give it another try!
Csutelan said:
Yes, I think I fall into that category. I have spent the last 25 years reading great works of fiction in search of answers to the fundamental questions in life that haunt me. I hate to believe that everything is just random and that my own existence has no meaning to me or anyone else in the universe and that when I die I will simply cease to exists for eternity. I know I am not alone in these thoughts and so I have read and studied the works of great authors and philosophers who have tried to find meaning in everyday existence. Books like "Ulysses" by Joyce, "Sound and the Fury" and "The Stranger" by Camus really resonate for me as well as much older books like "The Canterbury Tales", the great tragedies of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson and the prophecies and poetry of Blake, Byron and Shelley. For straight philosophy, I enjoy Camus, Sartre, Swedenborg but I really gravitate more towards fiction, drama and poetry and sources of inspiration and meaning. I don't know it that makes me a philosophy "geek" or a literary "nut". You can be the judge :)
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I ought to have written "through all manner of artistic expression," since theatre and cinema are not literary forms, per se. Sheesh, how did I get to be so type A?
gouldgrl said:
I agree that we can probe the meaning of our own existence through all manner of literature: fiction, poetry, theatre, cinema. Timeless works of literature are timeless precisely because they speak to the basic questions of life in almost every generation. I am duly impressed that you've read "Ulysses"! I wrote a research paper in college about its printing and publication history, but I confess I didn't get very far in my own reading of that novel. Like the Benjy section in "Sound and the Fury," I found the stream-of-consciousness narrative in "Ulysses" too cumbersome. But perhaps I ought to give it another try!
Click to expand...
 
Yes I'm very interested in philosophy, but I don't really have a favourite philosopher.
I like to read most philosophical books and I like to discuss (and think and write in my "thought-book") different philosophical questions.
 
Cogito ergo sum - Ren? Descartes

So long as we keep thinking, we'll keep ourselves going and keep the spirit of life burning. I will keep on living and thinking great ideas, as much as I can.
 
I'm always on the look out for someone to have a philosophical discussion with :) though they are few and far between :(

I like to read and watch as much as I can to expand my mind. Try not to clutter it up with crap.
 
My favorite philosopher is Thomas Aquinas. I am reading his Summa in the latin in which he wrote it. G.K. Chesterton, who might have been an Aspie, wrote an amazing tiny little biography of Aquinas, that, in a few words, touches on the profoundness of existence. Chesterton focused on the word "Ens." Latin for "a thing that is existing." He brought out the subtle difference between the latin word "ens," and the english word "Being." I am currently also reading The Unity of Philosophical Experience, by Ettiene Gilson.
 
Ste11aeres said:
My favorite philosopher is Thomas Aquinas. I am reading his Summa in the latin in which he wrote it. G.K. Chesterton, who might have been an Aspie, wrote an amazing tiny little biography of Aquinas, that, in a few words, touches on the profoundness of existence. Chesterton focused on the word "Ens." Latin for "a thing that is existing." He brought out the subtle difference between the latin word "ens," and the english word "Being." I am currently also reading The Unity of Philosophical Experience, by Ettiene Gilson.
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I read some portions of the summa theologica many years ago and also took a metaphysics course based on Aquinas. I still remember ideas like the unity and multiplicity of being even though it has been forty years since I took the course. I.also studied Latin but it has been so long that I have forgotten nearly all of what I learned.

I must say though that my favorite philosopher was John Paul Sartre with the British Empiricists and William James in second and third place. I found Aquinas interesting to read bit I cannot accept his ideas as having any validity in the twenty-first century.
 
Loomis said:
I read some portions of the summa theologica many years ago and also took a metaphysics course based on Aquinas. I still remember ideas like the unity and multiplicity of being even though it has been forty years since I took the course. I.also studied Latin but it has been so long that I have forgotten nearly all of what I learned.

I must say though that my favorite philosopher was John Paul Sartre with the British Empiricists and William James in second and third place. I found Aquinas interesting to read bit I cannot accept his ideas as having any validity in the twenty-first century.
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Aquinas' whole world view was founded upon his Catholic Faith, so someone with a different religious stance would not get that much benefit from him. There are highly intelligent (Christian) philosophers now who still consider him truly great. I don't think this is a matter of the century one is in; in our twenty-first century there are lots and lots of different world-views held by different people; the choice of which philosophers one accepts as valid, really depends on the essential views of the particular person doing the accepting.
 
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Currently Majoring in Philosophy, and have an interest in history of Western Philosophy. More into the Metaphysics than ethics, though.
 
Fidel Castro had an excellent "philosophy." Him and other students would stick a gun to a professors head and viola! Instant "A" for the class.
2 Professors gave me an A for their philosophy classes. I'm not sure why...maybe cause I bugged the crap out of them asking questions after class. I find the answers to life via history. Example 20th history can give you ALL the answers per what's going on today ;)

Mothernature fillls in the rest of the gaps for me. Good luck philosophy majors. The truth seeker has one of the hardest trails in life.
 
Ste11aeres said:
My favorite philosopher is Thomas Aquinas. I am reading his Summa in the latin in which he wrote it. G.K. Chesterton, who might have been an Aspie, wrote an amazing tiny little biography of Aquinas, that, in a few words, touches on the profoundness of existence. Chesterton focused on the word "Ens." Latin for "a thing that is existing." He brought out the subtle difference between the latin word "ens," and the english word "Being." I am currently also reading The Unity of Philosophical Experience, by Ettiene Gilson.
Click to expand...

For years I thought Philosophy was NOT something I'd ever truly find interesting. I was wrong. Like you, Ste11ares, I love Aquinas. However, I believe it's a tie with Augustine of Hippo, for me.

And I'm happy to find someone else who not only has read the Summa but ALSO in Latin :D
 
Oh thank God! There are other Thomists on here. One thing I've noticed about the people on here is that, personal intelligence aside, most of them are not any better at formal logic than the average man on the street. I must admit it surprised me, because of all the stereotypes about AS people being smarter than others.

It's not really an intelligence issue, though: it's kind of unfair for me to have made that assumption. It's just that most people (in general as well as on here) have not been taught how to properly reason or argue.

That aside, I've written four books of my own. Two of them are on theology, one on Aristotelian philosophy, and one is a Scriptural commentary. All of them are self-published and for sale on Lulu.com.
 
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