How does one become a philosopher?
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Berserker (
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December 15th, 2009
I keep asking myself this often, exactly what defines a person as a philosopher? Life experience and the knowledge you’ve gained from it? Does the way you use and apply said knowledge become a factor? What about one’s thinking process?
What about education, can you only be a philosopher if you’ve taken countless classes on the subject, and know about history’s notable big thinkers like Nietzsche or Darwin?
Can a homeless dude who dropped outta school be a philosopher? What about a rapper? A scientist?
Any thoughts? How do you define philosophy, and how do you become a philosopher?
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12 Answers
Doesn’t everyone have their own philosophy on life? Thus, everyone is technically a philosopher. Professional Philosopher? Only some. But philosophers none the less.
That logic may be flawed…
Keep asking questions and speculating on answers. I think when you believe that you have no more questions and know all of the answers then you no longer qualify as a philosopher. That’s probably when you become a priest or politician.
1. Eschew society in some way.
2. Acquire a mental illness.
3. Say things that eventually get writtten down.
4. ?????
5. PROFIT!
I am a professional philosopher. In the Western world, it involves getting a BA in philosophy, and then a PhD, and then teaching it to people working on their BA, and eventually teaching it to people working on their PhD. So yes, you have to read and then later teach Nietzsche, as well as Kant, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Levinas, Derrida, Leibniz, Arendt, de Beauvoir, Sartre, Descartes, Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Habermas, Butler, Irigaray, Kristeva, Taylor, Zizek, Frankfurt, and a lot of other people. Darwin is not a philosopher.
People become philosophers by thinking, and thus reflecting and through this reflection, strive for improvement. Therefore, the philosopher is no different than the person aspiring to succeed in this world, only that the philosopher isn’t as worried about the future as the newly-budded salesman.
One can become philosopher after the experiences in the life and reading lots of books on various subjects.
It takes a great deal of bad luck!
Beyond what some of these people have said, to be a professional philosopher, you have to be employed as a philosopher or published. For a look at my favorite modern day philosopher, see this link.
You write a manuscript about your philosophical notions, submit it to academic publishers, who choose to publish it…
Do it again, and again, and again… Guess what? You’re a philosopher! :-)
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