4 ms·

Why Philosophers make formidable entrepreneurs (2010)

7 points by ekm2 14y ago

ferrantim 14y ago
Yes! Philosophy, imo, is the most important subject that anyone can take in college. It's the meta subject because it helps you figure out HOW to think about any other subject which is way more useful than WHAT to think about any particular subject (e.g. CS, biology, history).
- pav3l 14y ago
  I disagree with your comment completely. It's not that philosophy teaches us how to think, and sciences teach us what to think. Philosophy teaches us how to pose questions. As soon as we are able to address those questions the problem becomes science (e.g. natural philosophy--> physics, philosophy of mind--> psychology, etc.)
  - gph1 14y ago
    Saying that all philosophical topics are just embryonic scientific topics is just as reductive and rigid as dividing the two by "how" and "what". Philosophy of mind is probably the dominant research area in contemporary philosophy, and I think you'd find a lot that doesn't overlap at all with empirical psychology.
    - pav3l 14y ago
      >Philosophy of mind is probably the dominant research area in contemporary philosophy, and I think you'd find a lot that doesn't overlap at all with empirical psychology. It's not really my area of expertise, but maybe the reason that philosophy of mind is such a big research area in contemporary philosophy is because we haven't figured out how to study mind yet. Once we figure out the correct questions about things like consciousness, we should be able to address them scientifically (much like we are doing with perception, learning, etc. through neuroscience), or figure out why it can't be addressed scientifically, or come to some kind of other logical conclusion.
  - ferrantim 14y ago
    Given that dialectal reasoning (e.g. Socrates, Hegel, Marx) is essentially the thought process through questioning logical discrepancies, we're basically saying that same thing. Proof: If philosophy teaches us how to pose questions And posing questions is the basic of dialectical thought Then philosophy teaches us how to think.
SparrowOS 14y ago
My jobs were all invented by the CIA. I don't even think I'm on the real internet if there is such a thing. For 9 years I got fake download numbers and only a handful of nasty FBI(imposter) emails. I once called for a day labor job and got violins playing on hold and no answer. We do not have freedom to do anything, just what the CIA has open. Fuck them. They know smart people do something and money doesn't motivate according to psychologists. Google pays for fun projects. Fucken CIA uses me as red team. i sure as hell am not pushing boulders up hills to roll back down. Fuck that. Live in yer fucked-up police state. everybody's paranoid. Fucken the machine has us under its thumb. I got God and laugh at them. I can put "Nigger" on my facebook page. God says... chapiter. 7:21 And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. 7:22 And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished. 7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about. 7:24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.
mathattack 14y ago
My undergrad used to offer an inter-departmental major between Computer Science and Philosophy. At first I thought it was crazy, but there were many overlaps: formal proving, digital logic and hardware, AI, and many more.
deleted 14y ago
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zaidf 14y ago
Anyone interested in how to put philosophy/psychology to use in business should check out Charles Munger's essays. He is Warren Buffet's partner with great set of talks on good decision making. This is one of my favorite talks from him: http://www.rbcpa.com/Mungerspeech_june_95.pdf http://www.rbcpa.com/Mungerspeech_june_95.pdf

7 points by ekm2 14y ago

Yes! Philosophy, imo, is the most important subject that anyone can take in college. It's the meta subject because it helps you figure out HOW to think about any other subject which is way more useful than WHAT to think about any particular subject (e.g. CS, biology, history).

pav3l 14y ago
I disagree with your comment completely. It's not that philosophy teaches us how to think, and sciences teach us what to think. Philosophy teaches us how to pose questions. As soon as we are able to address those questions the problem becomes science (e.g. natural philosophy--> physics, philosophy of mind--> psychology, etc.)
- gph1 14y ago
  Saying that all philosophical topics are just embryonic scientific topics is just as reductive and rigid as dividing the two by "how" and "what". Philosophy of mind is probably the dominant research area in contemporary philosophy, and I think you'd find a lot that doesn't overlap at all with empirical psychology.
  - pav3l 14y ago
    >Philosophy of mind is probably the dominant research area in contemporary philosophy, and I think you'd find a lot that doesn't overlap at all with empirical psychology. It's not really my area of expertise, but maybe the reason that philosophy of mind is such a big research area in contemporary philosophy is because we haven't figured out how to study mind yet. Once we figure out the correct questions about things like consciousness, we should be able to address them scientifically (much like we are doing with perception, learning, etc. through neuroscience), or figure out why it can't be addressed scientifically, or come to some kind of other logical conclusion.
- ferrantim 14y ago
  Given that dialectal reasoning (e.g. Socrates, Hegel, Marx) is essentially the thought process through questioning logical discrepancies, we're basically saying that same thing. Proof: If philosophy teaches us how to pose questions And posing questions is the basic of dialectical thought Then philosophy teaches us how to think.

SparrowOS 14y ago

My jobs were all invented by the CIA. I don't even think I'm on the real internet if there is such a thing. For 9 years I got fake download numbers and only a handful of nasty FBI(imposter) emails. I once called for a day labor job and got violins playing on hold and no answer. We do not have freedom to do anything, just what the CIA has open. Fuck them. They know smart people do something and money doesn't motivate according to psychologists. Google pays for fun projects. Fucken CIA uses me as red team. i sure as hell am not pushing boulders up hills to roll back down. Fuck that. Live in yer fucked-up police state. everybody's paranoid. Fucken the machine has us under its thumb. I got God and laugh at them. I can put "Nigger" on my facebook page. God says... chapiter. 7:21 And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin: and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. 7:22 And upon the top of the pillars was lily work: so was the work of the pillars finished. 7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about. 7:24 And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.

mathattack 14y ago

My undergrad used to offer an inter-departmental major between Computer Science and Philosophy. At first I thought it was crazy, but there were many overlaps: formal proving, digital logic and hardware, AI, and many more.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

zaidf 14y ago

Anyone interested in how to put philosophy/psychology to use in business should check out Charles Munger's essays. He is Warren Buffet's partner with great set of talks on good decision making. This is one of my favorite talks from him: http://www.rbcpa.com/Mungerspeech_june_95.pdf http://www.rbcpa.com/Mungerspeech_june_95.pdf