It has just occurred to me that most of the things we consider to be the "big questions" are not really important. The very fact that we have thrived on this planet for thousands of years without having ever conclusively answered any of them is ultimately proof of their complete irrelevancy.
That's always been, more or less, my reaction. The "Intro to Philosophy" questions (existance of God, free will, etc.) have consistantly been the least interesting philosophical questions, in my opinion. Those that actually have tangible, real world consequences (ethics and such) are more valuable. After all, if one were to disprove free will, would it really change anything?
Yes it would. Eg. all criminals woudl have to be freed, because they couldn't be held responsible for their crimes.
Not really ProCop. In fact, if we knew for a fact that a person's decisions were strictly the product of their environment, then it would be all the more important that we form an environment which will have the greatest effect toward reducing crime and protecting people. Free will or not, if you lock up criminals they can't harm others. Free will or not, if you punish people, they are less likely to commit crime. Although it makes for entertaining conversation over cocktails, free will is ultimately a meaningless and irrelevant debate.
I, like, totally know I'm wasting my, you know, time, even trying to get through to you people and I should, like, not post but I'm going to anyway so, like: Aaron Ross Powell Ethics are just as unreal and immaterial and false as those other questions you find so boring. For that matter, the bulk of philosophy deals with the meaningless if the human mind is subtracted; the world in-itself has no value or sense to it but only does so in proportion to one's insistence to think about it. In other words, a planet has no value until a thinking person lands on it. Says Wittgenstein (proposition 6: 41): So therefore, the 'big questions' that have plagued us and still plague us only exist because we do. They change nothing in the world but only the limits imposed on a mind attempting to deal with or understand it.
There are certain big questions that are very important, such as: "What is the purpose of life?" It is really man's quest to understand himself and his environment that all the big questions arise from. Why is it that humans have the capability to ask and ponder such questions, where animals are not? Without understanding of such matters, we risk wasting our liives and it is our lives that we all value greater than anything else. So, big questions have a very important purpose.
Have to be? We would keep them locked up because we aren't responsible for deciding to lock them up. Practically it makes no difference whether we think we have free will or not: we will behave in exactly the same way whichever applies.
Ethical questions get right to the heart of our actions and shape them. But, whether a person believes in a god or afterlife or free will, etc. they still have to go to work, they still have to eat, they still have to get along with their neighbors. Most of the supporting reasons for ethical conduct are grounded in real world practical reasons, regardless of any supernatural sanction that may or may not exist. So, that's why I would draw a distinction between "applied" philosophic concepts and esoteric ones.
@Tiberius1701 big questions are for "big" people, small people do not need to know if they have free will, but people, like Napoleon, or Alexander must ask these questions,asking such quations is necessary to surpass the mediocre.
All the big questions have been answer by natural philosophy turned physics. Now that we know more accurately than ever before known, our precision is only limited by our technology, the newest extension of our senses and memory.
I agree that the cliché big questions (meaning of life the universe and everything...) are not really all that important. Think of it this way, if you were able to ask God (yes, the big fluffy all knowing encyclopedia britannica in the sky!) one question, what really would you ask? When you really get down to it all questions become trivial wastes of time! You may ask when will you die or how can you change the world..... What a terrible thing to know, when you will die! The terror that would put in you! How could I change the world? When I really think about this I can only think that my every act is the world changing its self! So, what really are the important questions? sorry for the rant....
"important" directly depends on value, which is subjective. "important" begs the question "to what end?". while you may not consider them as such, do you think your assertion renders them so?
Hmmm.... this is a tough question, i'll have to ponder this a while, maybe my assertions are not valid to begin with... Do you have any thoughts as to the answer to your question?
Well, one might infer from the apparent evidence that 'the big questions' are considered big for good reason. They plague the mind. To what end, must be that of evolution as we perhaps, don't know it yet. I think perhaps there is more to the picture than is known. I have an idea of what that might be, but I don't feel like going into it at the moment. I'd guess if you do a search for the word "evolution" in conjunction with my username (and you have some time to pursue it), you can surmise my hypothesis.
I suppose my assertion that they were not important was based on my opinion that if a person were to some how know the answer it would not be very beneficial. If you knew the meaning of life and you go and tell everyone you meet there will be believers and non-believers, and it's not likely that people will be any nicer to their neighbor or stop killing their grandmothers for crack! Maybe the importance of the big questions is the question! The mystery of life! Imagine being alive and knowing everything, its like once you cheat at a video game, you are invincible and have unlimited ammo and a really boring game where you cant lose and there are no surprises! ...and thats not very fun... i'll have to check out your previous posts some other time....
