My old boss had a major in philosophy. All she did was try to use big words to sound intelligent. She would always say something and never support her arguments. Without reasoning to back up conclusions, philosophy is just a means of self-importance too many.

I totally agree.

People like your boss only give philosophy a bad name. If she disrespected your views, or couldn't defend her own, she was a philosophical hack (even calling her that is a compliment).

Practical as in:- actual use, not theoretical.
I can uses a spanner to do up or undo a nut, or hit someone over the head with it. (The latter is an emergent property).

What practical use is Philosophy?

I have the same problem with social scientists.

That is one use. (Although that might only prove them useful as spindoctors )
I agree, philosophy tends to way often be woolly bullshit. Honestly, that deserves sharp criticism.
Practical for what purpose? What actual use? Even if you want sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, is that not a philosophy?
So i guess i missed one in my previous post, philosophy thinks about the goal.

Okay .. I see where your coming from. For that purpose a spanner is useful.

But can you really change a person's mind with a spanner? Better tools for this job are debate and critical thinking. A spanner is the wrong tool here.

But I'm not saying debate is useful *for you*. It's useful for me. I deal with nuts (as in crazy people) more than nuts (as in bolts).

I have found that philosophy is directly associated with an individuals world view. World view is directly associated with behavior. Behavior is directly associated with ethics and "productivity".

For example you mention the use of a spanner to undo a nut. Certain philosophical paradigms are against the ecological impact of the industrial revolution and refuse to use a spanner. On the other hand other philosophical paradigms insist on the use of the spanner.

Philosophy has a direct practical influence on productivity or the lack of it.

Frederick Winslow Taylor had a direct influence on productivity and he was no philosopher.

Well, it got me laid a couple of times. That's practical enough for me.

Seen some pretty good points so far, papasmurf. Still think there is no use to philosophy.
Points i have seen: (I am biased, and i like lists)

• There is no practical use if nothing has value. Contemplating what has value to you is considered philosophy. So IMO without philosophy, a person must have a huge gap in understanding of himself.

• "Philosophy is a vessel, through which you take and share your wisdom with others. If your wisdom is water, then philosophy is the vessel. Each and every person in this world is a philosopher in his own way, and each differ in his/her own views." said dvvel, I disagree, i do not think philosophy is the act of communicating philosophy. Perhaps that is when we recognize it.

• "The point of philosophy is not to find answers, but to understand critical thinking and debate." yaaarrrgg

• I think philosophy is also about trying to strip distracting aspects off problems, by abstraction and assumptions. Finding underlying reasons for different opinions. Looking at opinions bottom-up.

All these seem pretty sensible answers to me. So dont go to another forum saying you did not get sensible answers until you can tell us why they dont look sensible to me. (Ok, sometimes that is hard to counter even blatantly stupid arguments.)
Then there is still the definition of philosophy. I have the feeling that philosophy might be a too broad term? It covers metaphysics(?), 'the goal'-what we should do, and maybe i sneakily added the stripping of distracting aspects.

Perhaps that's because it is a rather nonsensical question. I believe you would get better results if you gave people more of a context. How do you define philosophy? And "practical" in what context? Something is practical if it works - but works to do what?

To me, philosophy is the exploration of meaning. Nothing means anything, save the meaning we give it. We create and define our world by assigning meanings.

For example, two people are caught unexpectedly in the rain and they are both soaked. For one person, it is hellish - his day is ruined. For the other, it is heavenly - he dances in the rain and laughs about being soaked! He never had a better day.

It is the same water, but two people have very different experiences because of the different meaning they assigned to the unexpected rain. You might say they had different philosophies on the subject.

It is all a matter of perspective, and philosophy is the exploration of perspective. Thus nothing is more practical than philosophy - it is all about how we create our lives.

"What is the meaning of life?" is THE philosophical question. From meaning comes perspective, from perspective comes experience, or practical "reality".

I have as yet not been given one practical use for philosophy as no-one who has answered seems to understand what practical means.

Practical use for what? What use is there if you do not know what you want to do in the first place? Isnt figuring out what to do philosophy in some sense? Do you not need answers to problems like: "Shall i donate my organs when i am dead."
Perhaps it takes philosophy to find the use for philosophy.

[quote=Jasper84;80339]Practical use for what?QUOTE]

That is what I am asking.

Why don't you explain the problem with the given answers first.

What i meant was how is anything else useful without valuing things first, and isnt valuing those things philosophy? There is no 'practical use' if there is no 'use'.

You have described many answers to your question as not sensible. I would say that this mistake you are making as an answer IS the practical use when converted

Like meditation or academics, philosophy is an “opportunity” to examine ones mind or minds dynamics; abilities and inabilities of perception and their natures through perceiving and of course not perceiving.

It is a way of examining our thoughts behind the thoughts as we have thoughts that lead to and away from the thought of having thoughts or not and of course what that may look like if one were to ask that line of question.

If you cannot sense the practicality of how it may be practical then maybe you should try some of it and learn how too. Or maybe you actually do sense it, and are looking for something else?

Are you simply looking for a succinct reply? If that is the case I would say this:

If you want to see something sensible then look with sensible eyes.
But of course, you could remain on course, and see nothing sensible too.

There are many other uses for philosophy.

To further contriving isms
To demean human process
To apathize awareness
To divide, corrupt, and conquer for devious use.

These are much more common in these forums than my first answer.

Perhaps I misunderstood you. You didn't ask what was the practical use of a philosopher. You do not have to be a philosopher to have a philosophy about the issues of life.

I'm going to ask a question. No matter what answer I get, I will declare it useless and no real answer. See if you can come up with a good answer.