A philosopher? Easy claim to make, but hard to back up.

Was Mark Twain a philosopher? Only in the loosest sense. He was a writer, a humorist, and a satirist. And a very good one. But I don't find him listed anywhere as a philosopher, other than one of the crackerbarrel variety.

Little Hawk, can you give me a brief definition of Metaphysics (no, it doesn't mean "the Occult" the way many people use the word)? Or Epistomology? Or Ethics?

How much Aristotle have you read? Socrates? Plato? Aquinas? Machiavelli? Descartes? Hobbes? Spinoza? Berkeley? Hume? Rousseau? Kant? Locke? James? Hegel? Marx? Mill? Nietzsche? Wittgenstein? Russell?

Other than the popular Eastern philosophers, who have you read? Or have you just read a book or two on Taoism, a bit of Alan Watts, browsed through the Bhagavad Gita, then taken occasional side-trips into Carlos Castaneda?

Anybody can call himself a philosopher. And everyone is a philosopher in his or her own way. But I think if one is going to tout himself as a philosopher and sit around, look down from one's lofty position, and make pronouncements on the human condition—and be taken seriously, not just as a blowhard—it takes a bit of formal study of the field, otherwise you're no different from old Charlie, who spends his days sitting on the front porch of the general store, whittling and spitting and making wry comments on the passing parade.

Charlie ain't no philosopher. He just takes up space.

Ethics. I, personally, am especially interested in Ethics, because Ethics is philosophy in action. For example, should one just sit, observe, and comment from a nice, safe position? Or should you get involved and transform your beliefs into action?

Anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Don Firth