Philosophy is just applied existential crisis
Philosophy being reduced to only pondering about existential questions is a tragedy of misrepresentation. Philosophy is the study of thinking, and that covers a very wide range of topics.
I was gonna say this.
Existentialism is kinda boring IMO. But the philosophy of language, knowledge, and ethics are all super interesting.
I, too, have no fear of dying. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about. I won’t even know I’m dead. The only thing that is a bit scary is the process of dying, especially if it is something that’s really drug out, like a terminal disease. Then, I have to think about it for the rest of my life. Otherwise, if it just happens in a flash, like a nuclear bomb, I won’t even be aware I died.
In addition to questions of end-of-life, Existentialism also deals with questions of purpose-of-life. Which can be mind racking even if you’re not afraid of death.
Still not super interesting questions to me though.
And how is it even “applied”? I can’t come up with an explanation based on my understanding of term, which is to use the knowledge of something to solve real world problems.
Well, existentialism and nihilism kind of apply an existential crisis to reduce your personal suffering. That only works if you believe them though lol
I do not believe asking questions should be labeled as a crisis.
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The problem with philosophy in terms of understanding the bigger questions in life is that advanced physics (edit: and neuroscience, chemistry, math/stats, etc) has answered many questions that were previously in the realm of philosophy, and you can’t really understand what’s possible in reality / what constraints there are on abstract philosophy without understanding advanced physics and science.
Of course the problem with advanced physics is that it takes so much time and effort to learn and understand thoroughly that you often end up as a not great communicator to the average person.
Or, to be cheeky: physics aims to take the largest and most complicated concepts in the universe and explain them in the simplest possible language, and philosophy is the opposite.
That’s true if you’re only talking about what was once called ‘natural philosophy’, but there are still many areas where philosophy and physics don’t really overlap - ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, language, existentialism, etc.
I would argue that it absolutely applies to both existentialism and epistemology. Epistemologists frequently concern themselves with questions about the limits of human knowledge and understanding without actually going there themselves.
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Philosophers literally invented formal logic to help them answer questions. Yes they are trying to answer questions and constrain the possible answer space where they can’t.
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Sure, but at a fundamental level philosophers are not just sitting there asking questions with no purpose. They’re still seeking new understanding and information which is a form of answering questions.
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Much like how martial arts is no longer as useful for self defence in a world with handguns, but instead makes for very good exercise and social connections, and is just fun.
Except that a key difference is that no one gives out PhDs for martial arts. Yes you can get a black belt, signalling that you are as skilled as the top tier martial artists (I assume, I don’t do martial arts), but you cannot write a peer reviewed paper and get a PhD on karate because that would require learning something new about it and publishing it.
Philosophy in how the common person relates to it may just be as a mental kata that helps to improve their cognition and emotional regulation, but philosophy as a profession and academic discipline is still very much concerned with trying to answer questions and find ways of constraining the infinite to relevant possible answers.
One of my philosophy professors described philosophy as a bunch of people trying to convince themselves they’re not nuts.
I think therefore I nut
When people take it too seriously it’s more like herded anxiety.
The other way around makes more sense IMO: “An existential crisis is just applied philosophy.”
An existential crisis and it’s only a Monday, tell me I’m alive
