Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Philosophy. Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.[1][2] Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.[3] In more casual speech, by extension, "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group".[4] The word "philosophy" comes from the Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".[5][6][7] The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras.[8] Areas of inquiry Philosophy is divided into many sub-fields.
These include epistemology, logic, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.[9][10] Some of the major areas of study are considered individually below. Epistemology Rationalism is the emphasis on reasoning as a source of knowledge. Logic. RTP - Home Page. The Ragged Trousered Philosopher or 'RTP' as we are affectionately known to our friends, is an exercise in Web authorship which has been going on since 1996 (the core 'book' was started in 1986), the title of which was inspired by Robert Tressell's classic 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'. But that's about as far as the resemblance goes. There is little doubt that life on Earth is headed in the general direction being painted here.
Entropy, chaos and quantum mechanics have somehow turned primitive information first into energy, then matter, then self-motivating matter, intelligent matter and, with us, matter that can begin to create even more intelligent matter. Now, what is somewhat less certain is whether any remnants of the intelligent consciousness of our own species will survive 'coherently' into the future. Or will our dust simply be recycled like the atoms within our bodies - immortal, yet lifeless other than as a bit player on an infinite stage. Or can we think ahead? Ragged Trousered Philosopher. What will they call themselves? When we realised we were no longer apes, we called ourselves Human. When we realise we are no longer human, what will we call ourselves then? We are naïve to think of the coming metamorphosis in terms of perfection. Like the sun it is too bright for us to see the frilly edges, the corona, the storms on the surface.
But once we are part of it, we will feel all that turbulence for ourselves. The question is - how would an ape mind feel if it woke up in the brain of a human? Yeh, I know, just ask Sylvester Stallone. But seriously though folks… That’s the kind of leap we're going to be making. Nothing to be alarmed about. Nevertheless, seeing us from that perspective, gives a tiny glimpse of the heights they will have reached. The singularity can have at least two possible outcomes. We human minds are the gas cloud. And I used to worry about being bored! This is very much an all or nothing option.
On the other hand, consider the problem of that first crossover. So… Ragged Trousered Philosopher. I met god the other day. I know what you're thinking. How the hell did you know it was god? Well, I'll explain as we go along, but basically he convinced me by having all, and I do mean ALL, the answers. Every question I flung at him he batted back with a plausible and satisfactory answer. In the end, it was easier to accept that he was god than otherwise. Which is odd, because I'm still an atheist and we even agree on that! It all started on the 8.20 back from Paddington.
What did he look like? Well not what you might have expected that's for sure. 'Anyone sitting here? ' 'Help yourself' I replied. Sits down, relaxes, I ignore and back to the correspondence on genetically modified crops entering the food chain... Train pulls out and a few minutes later he speaks. 'Can I ask you a question?
' 'Why don't you believe in god? ' The Bastard! I love this kind of conversation and can rabbit on for hours about the nonsense of theist beliefs. But then I thought 'Odd! 'And why should I believe that? ' He did. Identity Cards. If you want to know how we can prevent the Tyrants doing more damage than the Terrorists; or how we can begin to claw back the liberties and privacy we've already lost, please read on... The paper I hope you're about to read represents a major component of the Trusted Surveillance scheme which I first mentioned here and which will (eventually) be explained in detail in the final part of my "War" chapter (Chapter Ten - Part 3). For an entertaining warning about the results of the Untrusted Surveillance we're already living with and threatened by, check this out.
This is the first version of the ID Card Paper I've put up on the web although it is about the 5th version since I started working in this area following 9-11. The earlier versions were aimed at influencing the UK government in its choice of system. It is also the case that I no longer feel like a minority voice in pointing out the increasing authoritarian nature of both the UK and US governments. This is not a techno-fantasy.
The world is in a collossal mess. Is there a rational way out of the maze? First, thanks to Matt who posted this comment against the Pinter post. It touches on one of my new year resolutions for 2006 so I thought I could do worse than outlining the answer to his question: "I was wondering if you had any strategies which might lead to the victory of liberatory forces. " As I said in my brief reply, he has, of course, asked the $64,000 question. The answer is yes and most of them will form the 3rd part of my Chapter on War, which is in the mixing bowl as we speak. That chapter has become something of a monster. The first priority, though, is to write the damn thing. Partly this is a mildly humorous homage to one of my favourite singers - the late Ian Dury - who wrote a song with that exact title; and partly it is to indicate that after all the "doom and gloom" of Parts 1 & 2, there are, in fact, some very good reasons to be optimistic that we CAN (but not necessarily WILL) get through this crisis and live happily ever after.
I can also give an outline of "the plot". Ragged Trousered Philosopher. Just another book on Philosophy; so why should you read it at all? Because, like us, you want to live forever, and you want to change the world of course. An ambitious opening, but we'll try to justify it as we go along. Hopefully you'll stay for a few pages, if only to see just how deranged we really are. And why should anyone want to change the world? If you really need an answer to that question, you're reading the wrong book (1) Where do you want us to start?
O.K. we get the message. Lets put it this way. The conclusions we reach will, we hope, form a consistent philosophical basis for both democracy and anarchism and a means of determining when the decision making process should switch from one mode to the other. This is, of course, not the first attempt at an exercise in deciding "what is Rational".
There seem to be at least two complementary ways of looking at the world. Sound a bit too mystical? Thats how the dialectic process works. Moving on... In short, The Active Citizen.