Ideology vs Philosophy

In a previous post, I talked about how ideology is curse of civilization. This does not mean that we should live without philosophy though. Here is a great speech given by Bill Clinton where he describes the benefits of philosophy vs ideology.

“If you have a philosophy, it generally pushes you in a certain direction or another; but, like all philosophers, you want to engage in discussion, and argument. You are open to evidence, to new learning. And, you are certainly open to debate the practical applications of your philosophy. Therefore, you might wind up making a principled agreement with someone with a different philosophy.
[?]
The problem with ideology is, if you got an ideology, you already got your mind made up; you know all the answers. And, that makes evidence irrelevant and argument a waste of time. So, you [use] assertion and attack.
[?]
The problem with that is that discourages thinking and gives you bad results.
[?]
It’s important to point out that if you are an ideologue, denial is an essential part of your political being. Whichever side ? If you are an ideologue, you got your mind made up. So when an inconvenient fact crops up, you have to be in denial.”

Brilliant! He says what I was attempting to but with so much more credibility. Here is a person who not only is a thinker but also knows how to run government and understands the failures of ideology. Political philosophy is open and questioning while ideology says it has all of the answers. Ideology might have answers but it also has no desirable results.

Popularity: 7% [?]