Looking for philosophy experts

by jstalin 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  jstalin

  Hello all, I'm looking for some expert(s) on philosophy, specifically ancient philosophy. The short story is that I don't want to raise children within a specific religion, but I'd still like to raise them with a philosophical underpinning for the important ways to live life. I've been looking at some ancient philosophical systems that encompass my core beliefs. Specifically I've been considering Stoicism as fairly well-founded and rounded. I think the most important issues I want to emphasize in any philosophical system are individuality, respect for others (regardless of social status, race, sexual orientation, etc), but also a strong sense of right and wrong with a reasoned system for determining what is right and wrong. I'm not interested in views of right and wrong that involve a deity's arbitrary determinations, but reasoned philosophical underpinnings, such as why harming others is wrong, why stealing is wrong, etc.

  Can anyone offer any assistance or places to look for finding the right philosopher for me?
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  doofdaddy

  Sounds like you are doing a good job on your own....
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  SixofNine

  PhiloDoh.com? The poetic wisdom of Homer (Simpson).

  If your browser says "cannot find server", it's because it's too busy, it's not because I just made that up.
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  sinis

  Plato, Socrates?

  Socrates was always my favorite. He seemed to teach common sense and logic.
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  restrangled

  Jstalin....

  Set a good example...thats the best religion! Sounds like you could probably do a great job on your own.

  Let them choose what they want to believe....its the freedom those of us raised as JW's longed for and never had the opportunity to persue.

  My husband and I raised 2 boys....both of us were pretty negative about religion in general, but left it up to them as to what they wanted.

  Neither boy has ever been in trouble. Both did excellent in school and both have excellent jobs. One will be 22 this fall and the other 25 this spring.

  Both are extrodinary boys.

  Trust your own ability to raise your own children.
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  OnTheWayOut

  I am no philosophy expert, and I bet the ones that are experts are not really all that expert either. Each person must decide their own path. Certainly, a parent has to guide that path, so what you are doing is great. It sounds like you are doing fine. My only suggestion is to look into some eastern philosophy- Tao, Confusious, Buddha. You don't need to have any religious acceptance to learn any of them. The way of Tao is the middle way- it allows for belief and disbelief, it allows for room for everyone and their beliefs that are different.
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  BurnTheShips

  Maintain TAO or DIE.
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  SacrificialLoon

  Stoicism? Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

  http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html
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  Fadeout

  I'm not sure what makes an ancient philisophical system any more valid than one synthesized from your own beliefs.

  But you've got pre-Socratics, such as Pythagoreans, Eleatics, and Sophists.

  The earlist Ionic philosphers, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, and Empedocles.

  Socrates of course revolutionized philosophy, and as anyone on the cutting edge, faced persecution for it, but paved the way for Plato and Aristotle, who tutored Alexander the Great.

  I've always fancied the Epicurean notion that "while we live, death is not, and when death is, we are not, and that, which by its presence cannot affect our happiness, ought not to trouble us when thought of as future."

  And as long as you are studying philosophy, there's no reason to limit yourself to the ancient... Descartes is the father of modern philosophy and was certainly one of the all-time great minds. Cogito ergo sum. And having the Cartesian plane named after him ain't bad neither.

  While Descartes never lost the fear of God, Spinoza managed nearly as dramatic an impact on philosophy but had a downright heretical conception of God, especially considering he lived in 17th-century Europe. We would probably call him an atheist.

  You've got Thomas Hobbes and John Locke as we move into the modern era... David Hume, the Scot whose arguments against God the Watchtower loves to quote and tear down, and even though he's dead I think he still got the best of them.

  Kant and Hegel are probably the two most important philosophers of the last 300 years. Ayn Rand is a polarizing but important figure of the 20th century.

  Those are just some highlights... I pick and choose what I like, but it's all interesting as it demonstrates various ways of looking at the world.
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  BurnTheShips

  Spinoza was a deist. And a sort of pantheist.

  BTS