why philosophy matters

and the reason philosophy matters is this. many people would say that philosophy is a whole lot of university students sitting round all night discussing ideas. This is not the the whole story. Since Socrates the rationale of philosphy is to decide whether an argument or proposition is true or not and how to decide the question and the methods available.

As you get on in life and hear all the critics and apologists and the wonderers then the picture becomes clearer. some say Socrates was put to death because he was a gadfly what ever that means and basically it means nothing unless there is an acompanying relationship. My opinion is that he was murdered because he asserted that the rulers of Athens thought that because they knew something then they knew everything. Fast forward 2,500 years and we are still in the same boat only worse. Now people assume that because they have been empowered by somebody or some instituion then they have license to do whatever they want.

For instance this morning I heard an officer of the court questioning someone in a public place with no privacy whatsoever. This sort of behaviour is just not good enough and the people doing it should know better but apparently they presume that they can do anything they want. There is no excuse for this at all and some of these junior jumped ups should read a bit about ethics and pseudopodic egos. Having a job is not justification for doing that sort of bsuiness in public and where anybody passing by can witness it. What the hell is going on where supposedly trained and empathetic people can conduct themselves like this with impunity?