The Purpose of the Forum

I have been studying philosophy pretty in depth for the past few months. Just because I had some questions I was not getting the answers to around this community... and I realized something that kind of filled me with horror. We tend to sit around here asking questions about life and the universe... but, we're behind the curve. A lot.

Philosophers since the BCE times have been "answering" life's biggest questions. Yet, we seem to have the same conversations over and over again about atheism, morality, and such.

Yes, these questions have not been answered, so to speak. But, a lot of us are coming up with arguments that have either led to dead ends or have been disproven by the greatest minds the world has ever known.

Why be so inefficient? Why not go straight to the sources and have these talks after studying the material that's already out there?

Why put stock in a community in the first place?

These are just some questions I've found myself having over the last few weeks. I don't mean to be rude or anything... Though, I guess it kind of sounds like I'm calling you all daft. But, that's not what I mean. I'm daft too... but those guys really were on to something. They devoted every day to thinking, and that's all they did.

So, what makes us more efficient? Or different? Or... what? I dunno.

Best,
-Connor.

Are we here to all come to the same objective conclusion about every topic?

As far as I can tell, we discuss in order to get different points of view. What is inefficient may be the tendency to divide views into two types of "wrong" and "right", "better" or "worse", and try to come to an ultimate conclusion by this method. That tends to miss the point of the nature of open discussion in the first place. I don't feel any of our views are "wrong" or "right", they simply are information to contribute a wider awareness of things. The discretion to decide if that information is useful enough is the reader's. In the end, we're not here to solve all the world's problems. We are not even here to solve ourselves because there is nothing to solve. We are not here to have answers given to us by other people. We are here to gather understanding about how we personally experience our own realities in relation to how other members here do, according to what they communicate. It is a completely open-ended endeavor and it always will and should be.

What is inefficient may be the tendency to divide views into two types of "wrong" and "right", "better" or "worse", and try to come to an ultimate conclusion by this method. That tends to miss the point of the nature of open discussion in the first place. I don't feel any of our views are "wrong" or "right", they simply are information to contribute a wider awareness of things.

Exactly.

Postmodernist philosophers!? I think its about integrating other thoughts/sciences advancements to reflect and hopefully improve upon earlier philosophy. Reinventing the wheel, beyond discovering connections, would be a lot of hard work.

wikipedia wrote: Postmodern philosophy is a philosophical direction which is critical of the foundational assumptions and universalizing tendency of Western philosophy. It emphasizes the importance of power relationships, personalization and discourse in the "construction" of truth and world views.

Postmodern philosophy is often particularly skeptical about simple binary oppositions characteristic of structuralism, emphasizing the problem of the philosopher cleanly distinguishing knowledge from ignorance, social progress from reversion, dominance from submission, and presence from absence

Yeah, we do. People like to talk. More than many like to "do". People like to be heard. People like to feel like they have an avenue to discuss their opinions. Some people enjoy hearing what others have to say, some just like to feel clever by presenting an opinion they think no one else has considered. Some, prefer learning via interaction than learning via study.

But, this is a Temple of Jediism, not a school of philosophy, and there are many other topics covered beyond it.

Within our ranks we have philosophy students, and a 'retired' philosophy professor... and yet they are still here.

I suppose those "guys were really onto it" because they DID sit around all day thinking about it.... I personally have laundry piling because I'm too busy living and exploring. I prefer to learn my philosophy on the go. Sitting around all day has never really agreed with me.

And as for being behind the curve... well, I guess its lucky then that I am a Jedi, and not a philosopher

....even if that makes me a daft one

I sit around thinking whenever I can...sometimes at work I tend to lose myself in thought...I don't think I'm behind the curve...I'm not claiming to be ahead of the curve either....I'm exactly where I need to be at this moment....

I spent a semester in college studying philosophy and spend a good deal of time reading additional philosophical material...I'm always amazed at how "advanced" the ancient philosophers were...so many were well ahead of their time...and others seemed ahead only to fall by the wayside once disproven...not every answer will stand the test of time, and some answers will outlast humanity...we find the ones we need at the time we need them...

I'm one of those intj's and constantly seek information....I love learning, part of me wants to know everything there is to know, part of me knows that isn't possible since information is constantly evolving...

Im curious, efficient at what?

In the broadest sense, perhaps in what the purpose of the forum means, as in "is the forum efficient?"
In a deeper sense:
To persevere and strive as a complete being, realize the connection and share in our true potential?
An efficient Jedi...?
It is past my bedtime.... :pinch:

Efficiency is my thought process. :laugh:

We repeat the same questions and answers because its efficient to. Saying something once is the same as not saying it at all. With so many on the go go go its easy to forget what was said ONCE!

I agree with Proteus on this one. Not saying you're right just agreeing. :whistle: We're not here to solve problems because solving problems can be inefficient. You have a cause an effect and sometimes the effect is the problem. Its inefficient to fix problems if the cause hasn't been altered.

Old minds think: How do we fix these problems?
New minds think: How do we make things the way we want them to be?

So if we're Jedi what is it that we want? Now the answer will vary from person to person but one thing I hope every Jedi wants is to learn about the Force. (optional: for knowledge and defense )

Some might adapt existing knowledge in order to understand what the Force is.
Others might start from scratch by observing what the Force is and what its not.

In either case It seems we want Jedi that are knowledgeable about the Force. With that question answered we can now move on to "How do we make thing the way we want them to be?"

One way is to have a constant open discussion with each other. We're currently doing that. Have we learned about the Force from our discussion? I have! ^.^ I cant speak for the rest of you but through our discussion I've learned a lot about the Force. Not all of what I know came from discussion but a lot of it did. Thank you for that. So is the Forum efficient. It is for me. How about you?

Our efficiency depends on your understanding of what it means to be efficient in the context of TOTJO.

Maybe we aren't very efficient at finding THE answers. As in the ultimate answers to the big questions of life and the universe. Yes, philosophers have discussed them to death already in a much more structured and searching way than many of us do here.

But I'm not here to find THE answers. I'm here to find MY answers. Just as everyone else is here to find their own personal truths.

The debates we have may not be new, but until I immerse myself in them, try out the ideas for myself and see how they look on me, they're just these abstract things that I don't really understand. I read books about philosophy and half of it goes right over my head. I have to actually discuss and debate it here to get to grips with the ideas, to work out where I stand, how to apply them in my life.

What we do here is efficient for me because it helps me to understand my own, individual path.

Although, I'm not saying that there isn't room for improvement...it's rare that the efficiency of something cannot be improved at all...