No.520
Scholars with vast knowledge of philosophy, those who studied many works, many books, essays and treatises.
Was it worth the time investment? Is there something out there?
No.522
Once you have clarified to yourself your own intuitions, half of philosophy becomes a waste. A materialist has no use for idealist philosophies, and vice versa.
If you really don't have any intuitive principles, then reading a lot of wide ranging philosophical works is of some use assuming you'll hopefully find out what convinces you beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I've read quite a bit more than the average person, but I mainly read things that are already in line with my own philosophical outlooks.
Due to my idealist scientism in which I was fascinated by theoretical relativity and quantum theory, when I came into contact with process focused philosophies I immediately understood what the core intuition of my entire world view was. Because QM and relativity corroborated an indirect scientific evidence for the truth of my intuition that reality is process based and not object based, I had an immediate rationalizing application of the intuition into an ever widening world view. I've never gone back on that, even though I have radically changed my understanding of specifics. I don't bother reading philosophies counter to my intuition. It's pointless as intuitions are not acquired rationally nor dispelled rationally.
No.523
Yes absolutely. It is very easy to spend your whole life at it and accomplish nothing though.
No.718
Ive read several thousand pages of Analytic philosophy, including:
All the works of Wittgenstein (12 books, a few multiple times)
All of Frege ( a few multiple times )
All of GE Moore
Most of Bertrand Russell
Kripke
Frank Ramsey
GEM Anscombe
It was a bit of a journey. I found it very rewarding. Honestly it was more rewarding than my bachelor of science degree.
No.722
No, ignorance is a bliss. Not only does the crumminess of the world weigh on your shoulders but the exact knowledge on how come the world is as it is and how there's nothing you can do to change/stop it for instance how antinatalism, which would literally fix all the problems there are, will never become mainstream. Nothing is valuable in itself, so if you have a choice between scholarship and doing shrooms and LSD all day long, pick the latter.