'Why Study Philosophy'

[denmark]

A philosopher picks his favorite Americans of the 20th Century - my picks below

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2018/10/my-five-favorite-americans-of-the-20th-century.htm

'My five favorite Americans of the 20th-century'

1. Eugene Debs. Stalwart if unsuccessful socialist agitator for an alternative to devotion to the market.
2. H.L. Mencken. Merciless critic of religious, patriotic and other bullshit, with his own parochial prejudices to be sure, but a great writer who punched up, down, and sideways without apology.
3. A. Philip Randolph. The most important labor and civil rights leader of the century, who made MLK possible, and who always championed, from the beginning, the interdependence of racial and economic progress.
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He betrayed his class and saved America from fascism and probably saved the world from the Nazis. The Reagan reaction of the last forty years was against his vision for social democracy.
5. Bayard Rustin. He organized the 1963 March on Washington, and worked with A. Philip Randolph on behalf of the same goals: Randolph and Rustin were a team. He did all this as a gay African-American, and in the face of enormous bigotry both within and outside the movement. A person of enormous dignity and courage, whom I had the privilege to interview in the early 1980s. I will never forget it.

Your favorites?

My favorites. Usually I would select writers or artists but this time I selected people who actually did good things for all Americans.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Harry S. Truman
Jimmy Carter
Pete Seeger

"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character." William Arthur Ward

You really think that piece of shit FDR did good things for “all Americans”? Give me a fucking break. And he betrayed his class? What a fucking joke that ass. He served his classes just fine.

Was it not FDR that gave USA “social security”?
Or, is that too “socialistic” for you? LOL!

 

[Unkotare]

A philosopher picks his favorite Americans of the 20th Century - my picks below

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2018/10/my-five-favorite-americans-of-the-20th-century.htm

'My five favorite Americans of the 20th-century'

1. Eugene Debs. Stalwart if unsuccessful socialist agitator for an alternative to devotion to the market.
2. H.L. Mencken. Merciless critic of religious, patriotic and other bullshit, with his own parochial prejudices to be sure, but a great writer who punched up, down, and sideways without apology.
3. A. Philip Randolph. The most important labor and civil rights leader of the century, who made MLK possible, and who always championed, from the beginning, the interdependence of racial and economic progress.
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He betrayed his class and saved America from fascism and probably saved the world from the Nazis. The Reagan reaction of the last forty years was against his vision for social democracy.
5. Bayard Rustin. He organized the 1963 March on Washington, and worked with A. Philip Randolph on behalf of the same goals: Randolph and Rustin were a team. He did all this as a gay African-American, and in the face of enormous bigotry both within and outside the movement. A person of enormous dignity and courage, whom I had the privilege to interview in the early 1980s. I will never forget it.

Your favorites?

My favorites. Usually I would select writers or artists but this time I selected people who actually did good things for all Americans.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Harry S. Truman
Jimmy Carter
Pete Seeger

"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character." William Arthur Ward

You really think that piece of shit FDR did good things for “all Americans”? Give me a fucking break. And he betrayed his class? What a fucking joke that ass. He served his classes just fine.

Was it not FDR that gave USA “social security”?
...

And?

 

[denmark]

A philosopher picks his favorite Americans of the 20th Century - my picks below

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2018/10/my-five-favorite-americans-of-the-20th-century.htm

'My five favorite Americans of the 20th-century'

1. Eugene Debs. Stalwart if unsuccessful socialist agitator for an alternative to devotion to the market.
2. H.L. Mencken. Merciless critic of religious, patriotic and other bullshit, with his own parochial prejudices to be sure, but a great writer who punched up, down, and sideways without apology.
3. A. Philip Randolph. The most important labor and civil rights leader of the century, who made MLK possible, and who always championed, from the beginning, the interdependence of racial and economic progress.
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He betrayed his class and saved America from fascism and probably saved the world from the Nazis. The Reagan reaction of the last forty years was against his vision for social democracy.
5. Bayard Rustin. He organized the 1963 March on Washington, and worked with A. Philip Randolph on behalf of the same goals: Randolph and Rustin were a team. He did all this as a gay African-American, and in the face of enormous bigotry both within and outside the movement. A person of enormous dignity and courage, whom I had the privilege to interview in the early 1980s. I will never forget it.

Your favorites?

My favorites. Usually I would select writers or artists but this time I selected people who actually did good things for all Americans.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Harry S. Truman
Jimmy Carter
Pete Seeger

"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character." William Arthur Ward

You really think that piece of shit FDR did good things for “all Americans”? Give me a fucking break. And he betrayed his class? What a fucking joke that ass. He served his classes just fine.

Was it not FDR that gave USA “social security”?
...

And?

You have a problem answering simple questions?

 

[Unkotare]

A philosopher picks his favorite Americans of the 20th Century - my picks below

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2018/10/my-five-favorite-americans-of-the-20th-century.htm

'My five favorite Americans of the 20th-century'

1. Eugene Debs. Stalwart if unsuccessful socialist agitator for an alternative to devotion to the market.
2. H.L. Mencken. Merciless critic of religious, patriotic and other bullshit, with his own parochial prejudices to be sure, but a great writer who punched up, down, and sideways without apology.
3. A. Philip Randolph. The most important labor and civil rights leader of the century, who made MLK possible, and who always championed, from the beginning, the interdependence of racial and economic progress.
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He betrayed his class and saved America from fascism and probably saved the world from the Nazis. The Reagan reaction of the last forty years was against his vision for social democracy.
5. Bayard Rustin. He organized the 1963 March on Washington, and worked with A. Philip Randolph on behalf of the same goals: Randolph and Rustin were a team. He did all this as a gay African-American, and in the face of enormous bigotry both within and outside the movement. A person of enormous dignity and courage, whom I had the privilege to interview in the early 1980s. I will never forget it.

Your favorites?

My favorites. Usually I would select writers or artists but this time I selected people who actually did good things for all Americans.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Harry S. Truman
Jimmy Carter
Pete Seeger

"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character." William Arthur Ward

You really think that piece of shit FDR did good things for “all Americans”? Give me a fucking break. And he betrayed his class? What a fucking joke that ass. He served his classes just fine.

Was it not FDR that gave USA “social security”?
...

And?

You have a problem answering simple questions?

You have a problem with simple logic?

 

[denmark]

A philosopher picks his favorite Americans of the 20th Century - my picks below

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2018/10/my-five-favorite-americans-of-the-20th-century.htm

'My five favorite Americans of the 20th-century'

1. Eugene Debs. Stalwart if unsuccessful socialist agitator for an alternative to devotion to the market.
2. H.L. Mencken. Merciless critic of religious, patriotic and other bullshit, with his own parochial prejudices to be sure, but a great writer who punched up, down, and sideways without apology.
3. A. Philip Randolph. The most important labor and civil rights leader of the century, who made MLK possible, and who always championed, from the beginning, the interdependence of racial and economic progress.
4. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He betrayed his class and saved America from fascism and probably saved the world from the Nazis. The Reagan reaction of the last forty years was against his vision for social democracy.
5. Bayard Rustin. He organized the 1963 March on Washington, and worked with A. Philip Randolph on behalf of the same goals: Randolph and Rustin were a team. He did all this as a gay African-American, and in the face of enormous bigotry both within and outside the movement. A person of enormous dignity and courage, whom I had the privilege to interview in the early 1980s. I will never forget it.

Your favorites?

My favorites. Usually I would select writers or artists but this time I selected people who actually did good things for all Americans.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Harry S. Truman
Jimmy Carter
Pete Seeger

"Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character." William Arthur Ward

You really think that piece of shit FDR did good things for “all Americans”? Give me a fucking break. And he betrayed his class? What a fucking joke that ass. He served his classes just fine.

Was it not FDR that gave USA “social security”?
...

And?

You have a problem answering simple questions?

You have a problem with simple logic?

Apparently, you have that problem.
It does not take much logic to answer simple questions.

 

[Unkotare]

You really think that piece of shit FDR did good things for “all Americans”? Give me a fucking break. And he betrayed his class? What a fucking joke that ass. He served his classes just fine.

Was it not FDR that gave USA “social security”?
...

And?

You have a problem answering simple questions?

You have a problem with simple logic?

Apparently, you have that problem.
...

Apparently, you think that saddling future generations with an unsustainable entitlement program somehow negates throwing over 100,000 innocent Americans into concentration camps.

 

[Karl Rand]

More stuff for the thinkers.

"Philosophy and politics majors earn more than any other humanities degree through all stages of their careers."

"Philosophy majors outperform business majors in earning power later in their careers, and they outperform biology majors at all stages of their careers. Mid-career median salaries for philosophy majors are reported to be $85,100.[31]"

American Catholic Philosophical Association - Publications

And this too:

Interesting comments on African philosophy

Existence and Consolation -

"Politics is opposed to morality, as philosophy to naiveté." Emmanuel Levinas

"Human beings do not live in the objective world alone ... but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached ... We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation." Edward Sapir

HMMMM. Sapir comes across a little too much like Bishop Berkeley for my taste .
The employment outcomes for philosophers is interesting. One aspect of recent academia I’m all to aware of is you can take an intelligent student, put them through an M BA degree and often a complete moron comes out the other end. And we go on to appoint these drips as deans of universities. Or as that old Hungarian saying has it ‘The fish rots from the head down’.

 

[denmark]

Was it not FDR that gave USA “social security”?
...

And?

You have a problem answering simple questions?

You have a problem with simple logic?

Apparently, you have that problem.
...

Apparently, you think that saddling future generations with an unsustainable entitlement program somehow negates throwing over 100,000 innocent Americans into concentration camps.

Agreed; the US internment of Japanese & German civilians during WWII was an embarrassment to US valued liberty.
However, social security at old age is not to be dismissed, but fixed. It’s a separate issue.

 

[Karl Rand]

Living as I do in a nation operating very sucessfully on a mix of capitalism and the welfare state I find the black and white arguments Americans have about all this utterly mindless and absurdly tribal. Wake up America !

 

[Karl Rand]

You have a problem with simple logic?

Anyone who imagines logic is simple has a problem, including quantum logic, informal logic, deontic logic, higher order logic, intentional logic, mathematical logic, pluralitive logic, combinatory logic, three valued logic, symbolic logic, formal logic, second order logic, logical atomism etc - - - - - - - - Take for instance in a language supposedly logically perfect ( whatever that means) the logical form of a proposition, a set of propositions, or an argument is determined by the grammatical form of the sentence, the set of sentences, or the argument-text expressing it. Nightmarish stuff, really.

 

[Karl Rand]

Someone doesn't understand what America is...^^^

America no longer understands what America is.

 

[Karl Rand]

Reading philosophy is an active event, much like reading a book on Mathematics or legal judgments. The authors, translators and editors of works of the great philosophers are not often the best writers, for their efforts to cover all bases leads to many parenthetic paragraphs. Most works require intense concentration and note taking

Some works are still nonsense after years of concentrated devotion and note taking.
In fact some I find become more confusing everytime they cross one's desk.
’The World as Will and Representation’ comes to mind. On the other hand Rand’s formal philosophy ( yes, she did dive that deep contrary to anything academic snobbery asserts) become clearer and clearer and more apparently mistaken with each reading, apart from her epistemology which is for me a simple yet unsurpassed achievment.

 

[Unkotare]

You have a problem with simple logic?

Anyone who imagines logic is simple has a problem, including quantum logic, informal logic, deontic logic, higher order logic, intentional logic, mathematical logic, pluralitive logic, combinatory logic, three valued logic, symbolic logic, formal logic, second order logic, logical atomism etc - - - - - - - - Take for instance in a language supposedly logically perfect ( whatever that means) the logical form of a proposition, a set of propositions, or an argument is determined by the grammatical form of the sentence, the set of sentences, or the argument-text expressing it. Nightmarish stuff, really.

As I was saying...

 

[Unkotare]

Someone doesn't understand what America is...^^^

America no longer understands what America is.

Pretentious douche baggery

 

[Karl Rand]

Someone doesn't understand what America is...^^^

America no longer understands what America is.

Pretentious douche baggery

It’s always a pleasure to read such cogent, perceptive and in depth comment.

 

[Unkotare]

Someone doesn't understand what America is...^^^

America no longer understands what America is.

Pretentious douche baggery

It’s always a pleasure to read such cogent, perceptive and in depth comment.

You’re welcome.

 

[Karl Rand]

It does not take much logic to answer simple questions.

That is if there is an answer.

 

[Karl Rand]

Someone doesn't understand what America is...^^^

America no longer understands what America is.

Pretentious douche baggery

Not from outside America it ain’t.

 

[Unkotare]

Someone doesn't understand what America is...^^^

America no longer understands what America is.

Pretentious douche baggery

Not from outside America it ain’t.

From anywhere.

 

[denmark]

It does not take much logic to answer simple questions.

That is if there is an answer.

Or, how logical the response or “answer” is.