Ask the correct Question.

I tend to think that I know at least something about philosophy. I have a piece of paper that says I know stuff, I took some classes, I've read some books, and people who have, "Ph. D" after their name told me I was good at it. So when I tell other people that they are doing something wrong when they "think about stuff" I tend to think that I have a bit of credibility behind that claim. Not as much as I could, mind you, but I have more than people who have less than me.

There's an article on msnbc about What exactly is life? because apparently some scientists are saying words and Seth Borenstein thought he could get an article out of it. Here's what bothers me, though. Most people, when asking questions like this, fuck up. Not because the question is bad, but rather because they're asking the question out of order.

Take, for example, the question, "What is the meaning of life?" You've heard it, asked it, and probably thought about it at 4:00 a.m. with a group of friends. The problem with this question, though, is that it presupposed something. It presupposes that there IS a meaning to life, skips the question of whether or not there is one, and then just goes right ahead with the quest to find what that something is. It's akin to a Boy Scout trying to find a snipe. They're in the woods with a bag looking for the damn thing, but they've forgotten the MOST IMPORTANT PART: Is there a snipe?

That's just something that bothers me. People embark upon these mystical quests through thoughts before they assess whether or not the thing for which they quest exists. And that's just an indication that they really don't know what they fuck they're doing, despite how much they might think that they do.