Applied philosophy vs theory?

wylo

Sorry this is a bit of vague question which will clearly highlight how little I know about philosophy on a theoretical level in terms of what is thought and how its thought. But Ive a question.

Is there a term or name for what I would consider "applied philosophy", or is all philosophy applied philosophy?

In my limited knowledge of this subject, it seems to me so far that there are 2 angles to this.

1. There is discussion , discussion about different theories, different models, different discussion about well known philosophers and their various takes, etc etc .

2. Applied philosophy, i.e. actually trying to investigate your own experience yourself so as to actually experience a closer "truth" in your reality, possibly following real instructions and learning techniques and different takes to do that (which would force you back to no. 1 from time to time)

Im not saying one is better than the other, or that one person SHOULD be carrying out one over the other, Im just asking, is this difference recognised? Is there even a difference? Is it all mixed together? Have I made up that difference?
For instance , whats thought in a philosophy college course?

Thanks for the help, if you need me to elaborate or be clearer let me know, the question might sound confusing.
I guess to give a vague analogy, it would be like asking is there an acknowledged difference between maths and applied maths? (very vague analogy tbh)

EDIT: Just one more elaboration to try and be clear, I hear people talking about studying philosophy. Is there an acknowledged difference between being an actual practical philosopher , and studying philosophy? Or are they both the same thing? The former being someone who wants to experience perceptual shifts and attain a closer direct understanding to whatever 'truth' makes sense to them, the latter being someone who studies all the models of reality, all the various takes, the ancient history and modern history of it.

18AD

wylo wrote: »

2. Applied philosophy, i.e. actually trying to investigate your own experience yourself so as to actually experience a closer "truth" in your reality, possibly following real instructions and learning techniques and different takes to do that (which would force you back to no. 1 from time to time)

Philosophy is about thinking. There are no techniques or instructions bar logic and reasoning, and the multiple forms they come in.

What you choose to apply thinking to is up to yourself. Whether that be to your life or to a specific experience or to a character in a book or a math formula or to thinking itself.

Strictly speaking, academic philosophy only cares about the ideas and the reasons. (Whether you can completely separate ideas from your own life is another kettle of fish altogether.)

Obviously something like phenomenology is about looking at subjective experience and how that works. Something like ethics or politics is probably doing the same, looking at how people function together.

And something like philosophy of maths is going to be very abstract and probably not very applicable to human affairs. But even this is up for discussion.

wylo

Thanks 18AD, I think the word 'phenomenology' is what I was looking for alright.

My question wasnt really meant as an opinion question, moreso the specifics of what is actually thought in the study of the philosophy (probably academic like you point out)



But I have to differ regarding there being no techniques or instructions. I think applying specific techniques can allow insight to occur. Then again maybe im going more into the "spiritual" realm with that.

I guess I just dont know enough yet about the whole subject to comment.

18AD

wylo wrote: »

But I have to differ regarding there being no techniques or instructions. I think applying specific techniques can allow insight to occur. Then again maybe im going more into the "spiritual" realm with that.

When I say there are no techniques I mean just in academic philosophy.

There are of course techniques and methods outside of this, but as you say this is venturing into spirituality, religion and perhaps pop psychology.



Edit: The wiki page is actually a decent overview of the various schools of thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy#Areas_of_inquiry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy#Major_traditions