I have noticed that certain types of people like to talk about UFO’s, mental telepathy, conspiracy theories, religion, etc… I find them as aggravating as everyone else does but what bothers me is, I like to talk about philosophy, often I feel it is received in the same way as the group above. It occurred to me that I might be placing myself square in the middle of that group and not even know I am doing it. I don’t talk about my stuff very often so it is not a huge problem.
Depending on what aspects of philosophy you’re talking about and how in depth you’re getting with it (and how often you’re bringing it up), I’d WAG they’re not treating you like you’re spouting off CT’s, they’re just bored and/or don’t understand what you’re talking about and in either case, probably just aren’t interested.
I bet you’d get a similar reaction if you started bringing up electrical engineering principles or helicopter aerodynamics.
I have a lot of friends who are engineers and they like talking to me because I enjoy listening to all their theories. They are starved for a listening board just as I am. I do have two people I can banter with. We have some differences but respect each others opinions.
That’s be my WAG, too. My suspicion is that the vast majority of people not only don’t understand philosophy, but they also never think about such things. If a friend (i.e., the OP) starts trying to talk with them about it, they aren’t going to be interested, because they can’t really engage in conversation on the topic, and aren’t interested in learning about it. And, if the friend persists in wanting to talk about philosophy with them, then I suppose I’m not surprised if he gets funny looks from them.
The OP notes that he does, in fact, like to listen to his engineering friends talk about engineering stuff; it may be that he’s just more intellectually curious than most people are.
OP: my only advice is “know your audience,” and realize (as it sounds like you have) that your desire to converse about philosophical topics isn’t widely shared.
I agree with you. Lately I have made it a point to join different philosophy groups and even there I only find one now and then that seems to have a similar mindset, but still a much higher ratio than I would find in the general public.
I’d second what @kenobi_65 said. Many, many people, almost regardless of their level of formal education, are profoundly intellectually uncurious. Some of us are the opposite.
Perhaps you’d care to post a philosophy question or opinion here on SDMB in a separate thread and see how we all take to it? Not as good as chewing the fat in person, but better than solo silence.
I will try it; I am not very good at framing a topic.
There’s significant overlap between religion and philosophy.
They’re concerned with some of the same questions; and there are some -isms that could be classified as either a religion or a philosophy.
there is a huge part of religion I have an interest in as long as I don’t have to accept scripture as factual.
Perhaps you could “dumb down” your philosophical bent by taking a leaf out of professor Mark Rowland’s thoroughly enjoyable books. Literally.
Everything I Know I Learned from TV: Philosophy for the Unrepentant Couch Potato
The Philosopher At The End Of The Universe: Philosophy Explained Through Science Fiction Films
Just the opposite. You should liberally salt your discourse with buzzwords, like hermeneutics, teleology, transcendentalia, Erkenntnistheorie, and modal logic. The more, the better. This will repel the UFO-conspiracy theory crowd and select for people with an active interest in philosophy.
But wouldn’t you worry that this would simply aid in the formation of an epistemic bubble of like minded philosophy nerds.
I understood the OP as wanting to geek out about philosophy. What better way to ensure this will be well-received than to make the non-philosophy-nerds tune out?
Thats a good point, I am not looking for like minded exactly, I like where we challenge each others theories on similar subjects.
It not something I bring up often, I will test someone out now and then to see how they respond, 3 minutes is more than enough time to figure that out.
For an excellent case in point, OP should study “Transgressing the Boundaires: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity” by Alan D. Sokal, which will provide OP with a solid tutorial in the use of buzzwords to bedazzle.
The ramifications of this philosophy piece are discussed in the Wiki article:
That was very interesting and closely related to things I enjoy discussing. My discussions are not on geek level as far as vocabulary goes and I tend to stay away from articles too loaded with word salad.