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What is philosophy?

What are the differences between "Philosophy" and "Armchair Philosophy" ?

  • Dictionary says : Armchair means "Without direct involvement or detailed study" so this is ok for "Armchair Detective" or "Armchair Physicist" etc. But "Philosophy" and "Armchair Philosophy" seem to be same as we do not have hard conclusions or hard experiments for Philosophy. One difference might be that "Philosophy" is by academics or professors etc while "Armchair Philosophy" is by ordinary citizens of the world. Another difference might be "Philosophy" uses difficult words or esoteric language while "Armchair Philosophy" uses common words or simple language. What other differences exist ?

  • Answer:

    There are three sources of "knowledge": Authority--someone or something told me it was true. (e.g. gov't, parents, bible, constitution, etc.) This is a perfectly valid source of knowledge, but the knowledge is relative to the authority that the knowledge came from. So, for example, the Bible can tell you how to be a good christian but perhaps not always can tell you how to be a good atheist. Experience--You probably made a mistake and learned don't do that. Or did something right and figured out to do that. This type of knowledge is constantly changing as we grow and learn and get into new situations. Also we forget things, so it changes in that way too. Principle--1+1=2. It will always be 2. Similarly, A=B=C means A=C; if A causes B and B causes C then A causes C; if A then B then if not B then not A. On and on. There is a lot of historical philosophy built on what is disguised as principle alone in the Rationalist tradition. Generally, principle is very helpful to use alongside experience and/or authority. Armchair philosophy is philosophy that leans more on principle than anything else. It is philosophy that leans not on new information but rather a rehashing of already known ideas. Non-armchair philosophy is philosophy that leans more on new information like a new experience or a new study or some other information that the listener does not know about yet. Real philosophy is both. However, some philosophy is more helpful than other philosophy.

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All philosophy is inactive thinking.  No basis for calling some "armchair".

Gwydion Madawc Williams

100K a year. All "real" philosophy includes armchair philosophy. The opposite is rarely true. Armchair philosophy pinches the lemon; "real" philosophy squeezes all the juice out by thinking clearly and considering and addressing objections. Armchair philosophy is real philosophy when it's done right.

Joel V Benjamin

The same as the difference between the study of military strategy and people asking "Who would win in a fight, Superman or Batman?"  In the one case you have an established discipline, with a history, a vocabulary and an understanding of basic concepts and of what has already been done and resolved.  In the other case you have fun speculation without this grounding in the fundamentals.

Rob Weir

Hard experiments for philosophy are real life history. The Koch brothers are dying to try theirs out on a large scale in America. Best line in the world on this was By Mikhail Gorbachev: "But in reality that terrible Communist experiment brought about repression of human dignity. Violence was used in order to impose that model on society." The map is not the territory.

Mike Leary

2 Differences are given in the question and I am adding 2 more Differences here. Difference # 1 might be that "Philosophy" is by academics or professors etc  while "Armchair Philosophy" is by ordinary citizens of the world. Difference # 2 might be that "Philosophy" uses difficult words or esoteric  language while "Armchair Philosophy" uses common words or simple  language. Difference # 3 might be the effort involved in thinking.  "Armchair Philosophy" is thinking for few minutes and coming to conclusions while "Philosophy" is spending time thinking and discussing and sharing and refining and meditating for months. Difference # 4 might be the completeness of the idea. Half-baked ideas are "Armchair Philosophy" while full-baked ideas are "Philosophy". But note that these Differences are the results of thoughts of an "Armchair Philosophy" guy.

Prem Ranjan

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