If we want to be prime movers we must dare to think independently. The man named Sir Isaac Newton was the man who created the first gravitational theory. Newton also explained that light had two forms particle and wave motion. But we forget one thing.
When Newton started his career, there were no gravitational theories and Newtonian mechanics. Being a prime mover makes it possible that a person makes mistakes. But if the person is successful. That brings gold and glory to that person. And guess how many errors Newton made before he published some of his theories?
The key element in philosophy is just to learn to ask "why?". We can always copy texts written by Popper or Aristotle. But when we try to create something new. We must dare to write something. That some famous philosophers did not write earlier. There is one thing that we must understand. Even the most famous philosophers once wrote their first text.
Sir Isaac Newton said he made great things because he stood on the giant's shoulders. Then we might ask how safe is to stand on a giant's shoulder. Should we rather follow other people? Should we always follow other people's thoughts?
Or repeat other people's ideas rather than make our ideas? So if we want to make something great, like some new theory we must dare to stand on the giant's shoulder. Maybe our ideas are sometimes unpractical. Or maybe, they are far away from possible.
And that means people are telling us that our idea is not working. Or our new idea is not suitable for mass production. But otherwise, those ideas were ours. They were and are something that came to my mind. When we think about safe models like writing some other people's ideas some other people like my own teachers could or some other philosophers might ask, "should I loan Plato's book, or should I read your thoughts?".
The fact is that I was in the philosophy course, and if I wanted to pass that course, I must write my ideas. I know that everybody can copy texts made by Aristotle, Newton, or Voltaire. But fewer people can write their own opinions and justify them by using accepted rhetoric. This is the idea of philosophy. What if Newton thought that he must follow other people's texts? And what if that man just summarized them?
The fact is that nobody ever heard of Sir Isaac Newton, the man who invented Newton's telescope, gravitation, and derivative-integral calculations. Nobody ever heard the idea that the universe is like a clock and God would not willingly intervene in what's going on here. Without being willing to make their texts, men and women like Newton would be the only man on earth.
When we are thinking about people who sympathize with the Russian attack on Ukraine. And their connection with vaccine resistance, we can say that vaccines can protect people against biological weapons. But that's only my own opinion. The thing is that the philosophical way to think is different than everyday thinking. philosophical thinking is deeper than regular thinking. And the key question is: does something has some kind of thing that is not open to us?
The classic example of a philosophical way to think is this. When our professor comes to the class there is a glass of water on his table. Then we must ask a question: is that liquid water? And if there is water, why that glass is on the table?
When we look at people, who are against their benefit, we must ask about the motive for that kind of behavior. Why did somebody do something? Whose benefit do the anti-vaccine attitudes serve?
Why that thing causes so big polemics? Why do those things raise so strong opinions? Those things are interesting.
https://bigthink.com/thinking/shoulders-of-qiants/
