哲学需要学习吗?为什么?

Ayn Rand 是个俄裔美国女作家,她通过文学创作开创了一套称为「客观主义」的哲学。毋庸置疑,作为畅销小说家,她是个想象力丰富的人,这套学说也有其追随者。不过主流哲学界并不怎么鸟她,基本上抱持科学家看待民科的态度。于是就有人在 Quora 上提了这么个问题:
quora.com/Ayn-Rand/Why-
Why do philosophers ignore Ayn Rand?

下面 John David Ward 的答案被顶到最高。摘录其中两段,恰好与知乎上面的这个问题相关:
When people talk about Rand's "philosophy," they're using that word only as a euphemism. What Rand developed through her books and presented to the world was an ideology, a complex of beliefs, opinions, metaphysics, and ethics. Philosophy is basically about the appreciation of wise thoughts, not the development of new ones. It isn't simply a set of assertions, no matter how superficially logical.
也就是说,今天的哲学已经不再是一种单纯用想像力就能够、甚至不再是一种需要想像力来「做」的事情了,得益于不断积累的知识,任何一个人对于任何哲学问题有任何奇想,都会(沮丧地)发现,前人早就想过,并且想得更周道而细致。所以这位答题者才说,Philosophy is basically about the appreciation of wise thoughts, not the development of new ones ——如果不去理解和消化固有的哲学思想,一心只用自己的想像力去闭门造车、营造自己的 ideology(意识形态),那算不得是真的「爱智慧」,至多是爱耍小聪明。
Unlike physics, which exist apart from academia, philosophy is inherently academic. There's a reason that the highest degree granted (in the United States, at least), a PhD, is called a doctorate of philosophy. At a high enough level, all academic work is partially philosophical. When you remove that from the living philosophical tradition stretching back hundreds of years, what do you have? Nothing.
无论想像力如何,对智慧有兴趣的人都会自然地发现哲学是必须要学习的一种知识。早期的哲学与经院、晚期的哲学则与学院紧密相关,就是因为在这些地方有积累起来的知识,而哲学在很大程度上是一些关于知识的元知识。那些在哲学史上做出过关键性进展的人,没有一个不曾对于固有的哲学有过研究,区别只是在于深浅。
原发布于 https://www.zhihu.com/question/20543468/answer/15433621