# Historically, how did philosophers benefit the general public? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 29, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-how-did-philosophers-benefit-the-general-public/504682 "2009-07-29T16:43:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-how-did-philosophers-benefit-the-general-public/504682/81 "2009-08-15T22:07:09Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > There are, I believe, both good and bad people who adopt either sort of philosophy (giving, for the sake of argument, the dichotomy that the Wiki article has drawn). The philosophy, I think, is not what motivates them. For those who are bent on evil, the philosophy is simply what they adopt in order to rationalize what they’re doing. That’s what’s great about philosophy – you just get to pick and choose whatever fits your preconceived notions anyway! For pretty much every point of view, the diametrically opposite is espoused just as fervently by someone or some school of thought, so you’re hardly ever at a loss for alternatives. Afterwards, you just assemble the whole hodgepodge and claim (and perhaps even believe) to have arrived at a reasoned picture of the world, that just happens to look a lot like your original one dressed up in nicer arguments. 😛 (I’m half-kidding here: while I think it’s only right for every stance to be given its due consideration, this multiplicity – perhaps even homogeneity – surely does a lot to make the field appear both impenetrable and somewhat arbitrary from the outside.) ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-how-did-philosophers-benefit-the-general-public/504682/82 "2009-08-17T14:00:00Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Come back when you have some clue about what philosophy _is_ (and, come to that, what science is). I think you’ve been whooshed. Half Man Half Wit: Much like scientists, philosophers use previous theories and postulates to test current ones. Unfortunately this does sometimes lead to the homogeneity you spoke of. In order to disprove those theories however it is necessary to understand them. As a result a broad knowledge base is necessary. This does not necessarily lead to a view “that just happens to look a lot like your original one dressed up in nicer arguments,” as like everyone else, the philosopher is changed by being exposed to different ideas. As a result what may have been a dichotomy when the philosopher originally espouses a theory ends up being a more gentle divergence after understanding of the various data. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-how-did-philosophers-benefit-the-general-public/504682/83 "2009-08-21T01:48:46Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > _snort_ OF COURSE NOT! It’s the Straight Dope SCIENCE Advisory Board, and SCIENCE threw Plato out 400 years ago. > > I mean, REALLY. Philosophy is mental masturbation with no relevance to science or reality at all. > [@](#): > > Thus we might conclude reasonably from these considerations that physics, astronomy, medicine, and all other disciplines that involve an examination of composite things are indeed doubtful; but that arithmetic, geometry, and other such disciplines that discuss only very simple and general things, **and are not concerned with whether or not they exist in nature** , contain something that is certain and beyond doubt. - Rene Descartes, _Meditations on First Philosophy_, First Meditation [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historically-how-did-philosophers-benefit-the-general-public/504682.md?page=4)