From LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Sat Mar 6 22:49:20 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: veion@XIRON.PC.HELSINKI.FI Received: (qmail 13944 invoked from network); 8 Apr 1997 02:12:15 -0000 Received: from segate.sunet.se (192.36.125.6) by xiron.pc.helsinki.fi with SMTP; 8 Apr 1997 02:12:15 -0000 Received: from segate.sunet.se by SEGATE.SUNET.SE (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id <14.811C5E45@SEGATE.SUNET.SE>; Tue, 8 Apr 1997 4:12:15 +0100 Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 20:13:58 -0500 Reply-To: Steven Belknap Sender: Lojban list From: Steven Belknap Subject: Re: Philosophy (was: CPE: Corliss Lamont) X-To: LOJBAN@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Veijo Vilva Content-Length: 786 Lines: 15 Message-ID: Wittgenstein, who was a suicide, eventually concluded that philosophy was a form of mental illness, or to be more precise, that the behavior of making philosophical inquiry was a form of mental illness. This seems a defensible position, given the tragic personal lives of most philosophers. Philosophy is only dangerous when taken too seriously. Reading in philosophy is an essential part of an education, as familiarity wiith mental illness is very helpful in understanding history. The trial of Socrates is best appreciated after several glasses of a good port. How about "pointless pondering" as an English gloss for the lojban translation? -Steven Steven Belknap, M.D. Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Medicine University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria