philosophy class is shit when you talk about something you dont like
the only reason i have to follow the streamlined process of education (get the degree, etc) is not because ive been taught that its a useful thing, its because i know that its a good thing, and thats something i learned through the process of observation. i have seen people fail at getting a job because their degree is useless/they dont have one, and i have seen people get employed because they have education. i dont need anyone to tell me that, as i can see it if i get the chance to in life (which most people probably would). any sane human being will, at some point in life, want to confirm what he hears, because knowledge is used to make better decisions. there is no such thing as being indifferent. people are not as "sheeple" as the edgelords controlling the media make it seem.
regarding the second paragraph, we search knowledge mostly because it allows us to make better decisions towards our goals (the goals are irrelevant, that would depend on your moral compass. this is a cool subject once you study Kant and Mill, if you havent already)
curiosity comes from trying to understand our world. it is still around today. the idea of gods appeared once people wondered about the afterlife, and once they tried to justify a lot of stuff that they couldnt explain. the concept of gods came from our fear and curiosity, so yes curiosity is a powerful thing. i recommend you check out stuff like the ontologic argument, and the other arguments that explain the existance of god (cant remember any of the names atm)
you mentioned something about not doing good and wasting our lives, or something. according to Kant, doing good would be exactly that: sacrificing your own consideration for yourself. according to him, there are three types of action:
a bad action. you do something because it is evil or prejudicial. simple
an action according to duty. this is an action that causes good, but your intentions were secondary. for example, you help an old lady cross the street to impress a girl. you did a good action, but it did not follow Kants criteria of a truly good action:
action done because of duty. you did this action because it was the right thing to do. no inclinations, no secondary objectives. this, however, would require willpower that only a fucking saint would have. we can even go in religious territory and see how this is the type of action that, if always practiced, would lead you to heaven, but its nearly impossible, and thus agnosticism was born, yadayada etc. but thats way off topic
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btw your teacher sounds super liberalist and biased, you sure its a good teacher?
Last edited by pusga; Sep 19, 2014 at 01:47 PM.
Reason: <24 hour edit/bump