I think that one of the coolest things about intellectual projects dealing with the "big" questions is that different disciplines can all bring something to the discussion (for example you might invoke quantum mechanics in talking about free will and determinism, or you might talk about the anthropric principle having something to say about religion). As philosophers, do you spend much time (or feel that you should or want to spend time) studying disciplines other than philosophy (physics, biology, pscyhology, economics) in order to bring different sorts of insight to bear on your work? Do you ever worry that if you don't reach outside your specialty, you might be handicapping yourself? Is it troubling to think that philosophy, in this way, might not be self-sufficient, so to speak? -j. santana

Studying philosophy has brought for me seduction and self love instead of intellectuality and wisdom! After reading some philosophy books and thinking a lot about philosophy of life, Now I've lost all of my life! I think that daily actions of my friends and their thoughts are useless and meaningless in compare with philosophic thoughts. In my idea, it's time wasting to study university lessons and just go around like others. I also see myself in higher degree than my friends and able to understand what they don't catch at all! After all, I have many problems in my daily life, friendship and in university, maybe because of thinking in this way ...

I don't understand the approach in answering some of the questions. When asking if something is "important" or what "duty" is or what "right" is, why answer with examples of stuff that's one of those terms or give an insight on the subject rather than attacking the word itself and finding what it means. We're already in a hole due to the problem of causation and must find associations and directions of fit. So why not really get deep within the skin to find out what a word like "important" or "right" or "duty" means (at least to the best of our abilities). Isn't the source of much dispute in other fields that people aren't on the same page as to what a particular word or term means? Philosophy is much better than that. Or am I missing something?

Does (and should) philosophy influence other disciplines? For example, does the philosophy of science have any real impact on the work of physicists or aesthetics on artists today? Did they ever? Does (and should) the philosophy of X do more than comment on and document X?

What is the difference between analytical and continental philosophy? Is one better than the other? Is analytical philosophy more scientific than continental philosophy?

I'm a female philosophy student, and I had an argument with my sister about the lack of female philosophers taught in college classes. She claimed that this was because of current sexism in the field of philosophy -- the mostly male philosophy professors disregard many great female philosophers and don't teach them. I thought that it was just a product of past sexism -- there historically haven't been many women in the field of philosophy, and therefore very few great female philosophers. Who's right? And if there aren't great female philosophers, should texts by women be taught anyway, as a kind of affirmative action?

I was thinking that philosophy should adopt a standardized terminology that's used when discussing philosophical matters. It would be a huge task and would divert discussion for a while but it may be become indispensable because philosophy could then make good progress. It just gets frustrating to hear the answer "It depends what you mean by ..." to philosophical questions. For example, the question posed on this site "Are there really any random events"? It's 2006 and we're still discussing the definition of random? If such a simple question cannot be answered unequivocally, how are more complex questions going to be answered? What do you think? Perhaps it's already been done in academic circles? Is it just the human condition that causes all this uncertainty?

I do not have much experience with philosophy, but am interested in debating. Can you recommend any good and thorough introductory texts to both formal debating and philosophical argumentation? Thank you.

What makes a question a "philosophical" question? It's easy enough to understand that scientific questions, for example, don't fit here, but beyond such obvious eliminations I'm at somewhat of a loss to come up with some more rigorous criteria.

What do philosophy and philosophers do nowadays? In the past new ideas affected politics and all that jazz, sort of. But what about today? Maybe it's just obscure and the general public hasn't noticed but what has philosophy accomplished of late? In my eyes, philosophers just keep arguing about old texts and inferred meanings and things humans will always wonder. So where is philosophy going?