Why do we engage in philosophy? What is there about human beings that leads us to engage in reflective thought, thinking about q

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问题     Why do we engage in philosophy? What is there about human beings that leads us to engage in reflective thought, thinking about questions which do not appear to produce practical results? It could be argued that in the long run philosophical thought does produce widespread practical consequences. In the political realm, for example, the writings of John Locke significantly influenced the development of American democracy, while the theories of Karl Marx have brought into being a radically new form of government. It could also be said that what separates us from the animal world and from uncivilized human beings is just this intellectual endeavor, which could be justified as valuable even if only for its own sake. But there is a deeper reason for engaging in philosophy, and that is that we simply cannot turn away from certain questions which constantly confront us. Our human constitution or our human condition predisposes us to want to know. It was Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) of Cambridge University who compared our situation to that of a fly in a bottle. The fly is trying to get out of the bottle but does not know how. The function and aim of philosophy is to show the fly how to get out of the bottle. For us this means that, like the fly, we feel trapped and have difficulty finding our way out. In our case, this fly bottle represents certain levels of ignorance or problems and questions that are difficult to solve and we look to philosophy for help in finding our way out.

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答案 我们为什么要从事哲学研究?人类自身有什么使我们致力于沉思,即思考那些看似不会产生实际效果的问题?可以说从最终的结果来看,哲学思考的确产生了广泛的实际影响。比如在政治领域,约翰.洛克的著作对美国民主的发展影响重大,而马克思主义使一种激进的新的政府形式得以诞生。也可以说使我们有别于动物世界和未开化人类的正是这种知性的尝试,即便这种思考是出于对自身的兴趣也有理由证明其价值。但是我们从事哲学思考有着一个更深层的原因,那就是我们横竖逃避不了经常面临的问题。剑桥大学的路德维格.维特根斯坦将我们的处境比作瓶中的苍蝇,想飞出瓶子却不知如何办到。哲学的功能和目的是给苍蝇指明出路。对我们来说,这意味着我们像苍蝇一样感到受困和难以逃出困境。就我们的情况而言,这只苍蝇代表着一定程度的无知和难以解决的问题,而我们寄希望于哲学来帮助我们找到出路。

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