I am still very new to steemit, but so far I have been impressed by the level of civility among you steemers. Moreover, you do so without losing that critical edge that makes the world that much more interesting. That is becoming rare these days, though this is not surprising, as philosophy has faded into the background as well. That is not the first time this has happened in human history, and I doubt it will be the last. Nevertheless, as a "philosopher" I feel it almost my duty to ask what, if anything, can be done to correct our forgetfulness? Or even if  we should care at all? I am testing the waters here, so to speak, to see what if any interest there is in discussing such things here on steemit. If so I'll be stoked! I bet we could have some killer conversations here. So what is a philosopher?

I would say there are three types of philosophers: academic, professional, and amateur. Most academic philosophers are professional as well, as they usually get paid to research philosophy; though it is not unheard of to find academic amateur philosophers lurking the libraries and philosophy chat rooms. Point being, the difference between professional and amateur in terms of a philosopher says nothing about said philosophers capacities/intelligence. Quite the opposite perhaps, for one to  study philosophy without getting paid is truly honorable in my humble opinion. That said, I get paid. I also do research partially funded through my position, though I am an academic on the fringe as I teach at a community college and not an actual research institution. I'm like a no man in no man's land.

Does this make me an expert in philosophy? I guess I don't know what that means? If by expert one means knowing "everything" about philosophy, not only would I NOT claim to be an expert, I would argue no such beast exists. But if by expert one means those with the most experience/education, then perhaps there is something to that; but I would again remind us that philosophy can be slippery, and even here we threaten to push beyond our limits. Interestingly, in asking the question of what the philosopher "is", we have more or less asked the meaning of philosophy as such. Philo-sophia, roughly translated as the "love" of wisdom, better translated as the loving "friend" of wisdom. Though now I am wondering what wisdom "is", and what it would mean to be a "friend" to it? Or should we banish wisdom to the abyss and embrace some strange objectivism and/or solipsism? 

But perhaps that should be the subject of the next story . . . I mean, question. Let's see how far this gets us . . .  

![images.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbw5KhFZ9rGLVKnsFG6XUKzzrtm8ZEtrNefd9yzoN5bkU/images.jpg)