<RareBird has on his SI profile
"Philosophy Rules"
which is true in that it decides our response to stimuli.
But when the majority of the population has none,
then whatever else is accepted,
being other peoples agenda,
that will rule
and chaos and evil knows this and uses it.>
According to Kant, Philosophy deals with the 4 basic questions of life:
1) "What can I know?"
2) "What ought I do?"
3) "What may I hope?"
4) "What am I?"
Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason: A 805; B 833
One need not go to Graduate School and get a Ph.D. in Philosophy in order to philosophize. All humans do that- though most don't realize that they are philosophizing. There is philosophical wisdom gained in each experience in Life, which is not present in any book.
The second question, "What ought I do," can easily be rephrased in terms of this thread: What gold stocks ought I go long or short? Should I go long or short Gold? People learn from experience, from the hard knocks in life.
What is philosophy? For me, philosophy is not only something rational, but it is the actual guardian of reason. Would you doubt that philosophy is a matter of reason and that most human beings reason in one form or another? However, since the question mark is my God, I can immediately pose new questions to this answer. What is reason? Has reason constituted itself to be the ruler of philosophy? If so, by what right? If not, whence does philosophy obtain its mission and its role? If what is considered to be reason was first established only by philosophy and within the course of its history, then it is not good judgement, in my opinion, to proclaim philosophy in advance as a matter of reason. However, as soon I cast doubt on the rational character of Philosophy, then in the same way it also becomes questionable whether philosophy belongs in the domain of the Irrational. For whoever wishes to designate philosophy as Irrational thereby takes the rational as a measure of limitation and, what is more, does it in such a way as again to take for granted what reason is.
I think Care, as the definition of each person, is required if we hazard a discussion of what philosophy is and how it rules.
I want to relate this to Gold and show how the major question raised on this thread is in the great tradition of Philosophy. Philosophers always ask, what is that? In Greek this sounds ti estin (what is it?). The question of what something is, however, has more than one meaning. I can ask, what is that over there in the distance? I receive the answer a tree. The answer consists in the fact that I name a thing which I do not clearly recognize.
I can, however, ask further, what is that which I call a tree? With this question I am already approaching the Greek ti estin (what is it?). It is this form of questioning which Socrates, Plato and Aristotle developed. They ask for example, "What is the Beautiful? What is Knowledge? What is Nature? What is Movement? What is Love? What is Being? What is Wisdom?
On this thread, we constantly ask, what is Gold? The question is a historical, that means, a fate-full question. The question, what is Gold, like what is philosophy, is itself a path. It leads from the actuality of the Greek World down to us, if not, indeed, beyond us. Nevertheless, we still have no guarantee thereby that we are immediately enabled to pursue this path in the right way. The question about the nature and function of Gold awakens at those times when that, whose nature is being questioned, has become obscure and confused, when at the same time, the relationship of men to what is being questioned (the value of Gold) has become uncertain or has even been shattered.
Here are some of the philosophical answers to the Question of What is Gold that have been presented on this thread? Gold is Dead. Gold is Money. Gold is being Manipulated. Gold is Currency. Gold is a Hedge. Gold is an alternative investment vehicle when a hard economic landing becomes apparent. Gold is the inverse of the US Dollar. Do you mean to tell me that this thread is not completely philosophical in the major question in which it tries to answer? |
