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..the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved.
Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes. No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential? The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this: Which is the most universal human characteristic - fear or laziness?
Waking Life

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Y'know the old adage: Idle hands is the Devil's work. Get up off your lazy intellectual asses, folks.

There's a widespread problem going on with the masses of philosophers these days, or should I say, these centuries. And by philosophers, I mean just about anybody who thinks, and has a method to their mayhem. Let's be brutally honest for a second here. Did any of us "get the fucking memo" when we were kids? I sure as hell didn't. I never saw any post-it on the ole' fridge that read: "Warning: Mankind has disintegrated! Failures abound! Beware of 90% of Philosophical Clutter Out There! Face the facts!" Did we learn anything about this in school, aside from a few moments during recess on the playground? Oh god forbid, for that would be far too revolutionary.

Aw, if only it were so easy. No, most of us had to learn the hard way, and yet, at the same time, most of us were taught the hard way, if you know what I mean. Such is the result of taking off where the next generation left off, including all their disintegrated philosophy, unwarranted conclusions, and downright unreasonable, illogical garbage, all implicitly structured in the very styles of thought, modes of behavior and mindsets - ergo, the result of philosophizing mid-stream. We were taught what to think, but not how to think. Like the monkeys that are in us all, we did what we saw. We often traded mimicry for intelligence. And what we mimicked and gained memes from was likely a mongrel philosophy, where it shared the same diseases, and within it, seeds of evil. And now as a result we have philosophers who crusade for disintegration over integration, and so forth.

Integration is something that takes work to achieve, and in case you haven't noticed, laziness ain't a rare gem in the collective masses.
As long as we merely coast mentally, relying on our automatic processes, then our ideas will by default remain unconnected, floating and out-of-context. And such is the intellectual plague that has struck humanity's greatest asset - the mind. This is where philosophy should have came to the rescue, by showing the world the crucial method and importance of grasping cognitive relationships. Sadly, it has done the opposite - its power has been thrown to the side of disintegration.

Philosophy is the ultimate integrator of human knowledge - if used properly. Because philosophy is the subject that can see the forest, it can therefore relate all the fields sciences to one another. Philosophy is the subject by which our scientists and specialists should have the proper metaphysics and epistemology, and then ordain itself over the total field of cognition, calling for a halt and a reappraisal whenever different areas begin to clash. For instance, when physics advocate causeless subatomic behavior while psychology insists on determinism - both of which doctrines happen to be false. This is a crucial reason why man needs a philosophy: in order to ensure that knowledge is a unity, rather than, as is now the case, a cacophony of clashing, contradicting and warring specialties.

In all the chaotic clutter and arbitrariness of today, every step in the progress of knowledge is also seen as a threat, for with such advancements come the possibility of some contradiction or fault erupting somewhere.
Thenceforth, we hear the old adage, "The more you learn, the more confucked you become, and the less you know."

Well, if the majority of the masses wants to blindly believe that and wallow around in perpetual ignorance, then they can go to hell. This is my life and by the love of my life I'm not going to chain myself by the irrational policy that has halted progress in the humanities and intellectual evolution of mankind - and neither should you. I'm going to say "No!" to bullshit - and so should you. I'm not going to sit on my ass and dwell in some morally perverse comfort of intellectual laziness and unproductivity instilled by irrational values of this society and screw myself in the long run - and neither should you. I'm going to benefit myself with the power of rational epistemology, read: rational philosophy in an irrational age - because the fact is if you do precisely that, there is no need to fear such advancements and progresses in knowledge, data or new ideas. To the contrary, every new bit of knowledge you integrate into the structure of your knowledge will only mean that much more fact to your advantage, that much more weight to your conclusions, and that much more conviction to the total of your very cognition.

Soon it becomes clear what should've been the popular wisdom: That the more you learn, if you learn it properly, the more clear-sighted you become and the more you know.

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Another factor that you mentioned which I feel is a big part of it is that in the modern world children are taught what to think and not "how" to think. I would hold that responsible for the disintigration more then anything else.

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spud said:

A post that's 1 or 2 pages is a long ways from "forever". 

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i make it a point to read every post in a thread b4 i post
even jiggies     

spud said:

So then, it's just coincidence that all the most prolific philosophers throughout history were extremely fond lengthy debates and long texts?

The greatest works in history are books. A post is already ridiculously condensed, if one sees a post as too long, they are severely lazy. Anything else they may say is just a cop out.

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fresh313 said:

spud said:

A post that's 1 or 2 pages is a long ways from "forever". 

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i make it a point to read every post in a thread b4 i post
even jiggies     

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I thank you for that fresh.  I just ask that anyone who replies to one, actually reads it first and doesn't guess what it's about based on the post header.  

SkorpivoMusterion said:

My opinion, is that all of man's cultures which had the quality of heightened cognition, had the same philosophical problems as we do today. It all comes down to the very roots of philosophy. First and foremost, metaphysics. An improper view of metaphysics will lead to irrational epistemology which leads to malevolent ethics and so forth. Combine this with the factor of widespread intellectual laziness/fear, you've got yourself a bona fide humanitus problematicus.

What was missing from the models? A logical, rational and coherent integrated philosophical structure, all built in successive levels from the ground up, like a towering skyscraper which is stable and strong by virtue of being connected with the ground.

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