Topics Philosophy

Question It has been long believed that the more you study philosophy, the greater the probability that you would see things more clearly and reasonably. However, the problem is sometimes, philosophical problems caught us too much that we would lose the insight of the present moment. Philosophy in other words has the tendency to get us lost in thoughts so much that we lose grip of reality. In my case, I would want to be a full-pledged philosopher but I also don't want to be a man always lost in thoughts. As professional philosophers, do you ever experience this? If so, how do you cope with it?

Accepted:
April 29, 2010

Comments

It's quite possible to spend too much time in your own head, too caught up in thought. It's also possible to be too quick to resort to analysis and "reason" in cases where a different sort of response will serve better. I'd guess that most philosophers (among other sorts of intellectuals) have seen this tendency in themselves from time to time and could tell stories on their colleagues.

That said, most of the philosophers I know are pretty sane and balanced. They can take their shoes off, so to speak, and don't feel the need to spend all their time analyzing. People who go into philosophy are probably inclined by temperament to be more analytical than most, but philosophy isn't necessarily the culprit. After all, it would be hard to make a good philosophical case for spending all one's time doing philosophy!