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[INFJ] INFJ - Philosophy and Belief System

eternal recurrence

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2 THINGS:

#1)
Any others major/do graduate work in Philosophy? ... i'm starting to think it could be a red herring as I sift through what seems to be endless libraries of infinity containing unanswerable questions - or maybe this is an existential crisis? One doesnt exclude the other. Anyone else have a dangerous tendency towards philosophy ;) ? If so, what branch?

2nd:
You know what ... I've been reading that INFJ's have these particular, specific, 1 or 2 things that they vehemently and uncompromisingly believe in and do not budge on AND I want to know what others are - so lets do sort of a qualitative poll...
 

cafe

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I don't have the attention span for Philosophy.

I guess if I was going to choose two things it would be defending the weak and desirability of exercising common courtesy whenever possible. Life has made me a pragmatist, though, so I will violate my own principles if I don't see a good alternative.

That probably isn't very helpful.
 
S

Sniffles

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I'm an autodidact, in that I read philosophy in my free time. My philosophical interests mostly are related to Anthropology, ie philosophy concerning man's nature. This branches off in various directions like Existentialism, humanism, political and social philosophy, etc.
 

Tiltyred

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Philosophy seems to me a very T thing. Endless arguing over stuff that can't be proven, the point being the arguing. Makes me run for the hills.

As to what my Inviolate Things are ... well, that's a personal question, now, innit?
 

eternal recurrence

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cafe - it was helpful

peguy - first let me quote your namesake - "We must always tell what we see. Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see." nice...that was fun, so why is philosophy restricted only in your free time?
 
S

Sniffles

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Nice somebody know my namesake. :)

Basically due to circumstances I haven't been able to pursue philosophy in any formal sense, and in some ways for a while I lacked the interest to do so as well.
 
P

Phantonym

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2 THINGS:
#1)
Any others major/do graduate work in Philosophy? ... i'm starting to think it could be a red herring as I sift through what seems to be endless libraries of infinity containing unanswerable questions - or maybe this is an existential crisis? One doesnt exclude the other. Anyone else have a dangerous tendency towards philosophy ;) ? If so, what branch?

Philosophy isn't really my cup of tea. I find myself constantly avoiding discussing philosophical issues because I don't feel confident in my ability to discuss them in a manner that it deserves. But I do like to gather information and ponder over issues by myself. I'm leaning mostly towards aesthetics and ethics.

2nd:
You know what ... I've been reading that INFJ's have these particular, specific, 1 or 2 things that they vehemently and uncompromisingly believe in and do not budge on AND I want to know what others are - so lets do sort of a qualitative poll...

This doesn't exactly apply to me. I spread myself too thin on a number of things, depending on my mood. My interest in things is in a constant flux and I haven't found specific things to be constantly interested in, I usually start to feel pressured and I definitely start to fight it.

What I believe in is never really fixed as I gather more and more information and "shift the blocks" in my mind. I am always open to new perspectives and I'm willing to admit my misconceptions and change my perspectives. But, there is one thing that I do not budge on, and that is my right to be interested in as many things as I like and to whatever extent I choose to be. However, as I never go that deep into anything, or I circle towards the core with a slower than slow pace, this mostly leaves me feeling inadequate in everything, sort of like "Jack of all trades..."
 

Polaris

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I do have a penchant for philosophy, as anyone familiar with my posting history can tell you. I have no plans to do course work in it, though, as American philosophy is dominated by the analytical tradition, which I have no use for whatsoever. What I'm interested in are philosophies that explore the human condition, whether the basic nature of reality as we experience it or what it means to feel a given emotion. The areas of philosophy that do this best are phenomenology and existentialism, which blend with a lot of other things like history, sociology, and psychology. These things interest me because my ultimate goal in life is to express myself to others in order to earn their love, and the prerequisite to doing that is to have something to express in the first place. Philosophy is obviously well-suited to that purpose, since it teaches me new things, gives me ideas of my own, and shows me the way to express it all. Philosophy also has the perk of giving me all sorts of tools with which to shift the way I look at things and light up courses of action that would not otherwise be available. If it weren't for philosophy, I would be a much weaker human being, and I might not even be alive, since it's one of the few things that has justified my life.

There are a lot of beliefs I resist budging on, either out of stubbornness or a playful arrogance, but all of these beliefs rest on a conviction that I must use belief itself as a weapon. That is the key to strength, and outside of it, everything is more or less negotiable.
 

quietmusician

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2 THINGS:

#1)
Any others major/do graduate work in Philosophy? ... i'm starting to think it could be a red herring as I sift through what seems to be endless libraries of infinity containing unanswerable questions - or maybe this is an existential crisis? One doesnt exclude the other. Anyone else have a dangerous tendency towards philosophy ;) ? If so, what branch?

2nd:
You know what ... I've been reading that INFJ's have these particular, specific, 1 or 2 things that they vehemently and uncompromisingly believe in and do not budge on AND I want to know what others are - so lets do sort of a qualitative poll...

I never really dived too deeply in Philosophy, but I do like it. I'm a bit of an existentialist too.

And I'm anti-stupid. I believe in common sense and those who lack it will not receive much from me, if anything at all. I also don't agree with people who try and control you. That stretches from the way you live to the interests you have.
 

LadyJaye

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I never really dived too deeply in Philosophy, but I do like it. I'm a bit of an existentialist too.

And I'm anti-stupid. I believe in common sense and those who lack it will not receive much from me, if anything at all. I also don't agree with people who try and control you. That stretches from the way you live to the interests you have.

My ENFJ twin reads quite a lot of philosophy, and hermaneutical types of books, but isn't such a fan of the existential genre as my INFJ father. "Slaughter House Five" is one of his favorite books, if that tells you anything. The Introversion must have some effect on these sorts of preferences.
 

ConstantlyImagining

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2 THINGS:

#1)
Any others major/do graduate work in Philosophy? ... i'm starting to think it could be a red herring as I sift through what seems to be endless libraries of infinity containing unanswerable questions - or maybe this is an existential crisis? One doesnt exclude the other. Anyone else have a dangerous tendency towards philosophy ;) ? If so, what branch?

2nd:
You know what ... I've been reading that INFJ's have these particular, specific, 1 or 2 things that they vehemently and uncompromisingly believe in and do not budge on AND I want to know what others are - so lets do sort of a qualitative poll...

1. I do not officially study philosophy but I do a lot of ruminating, introspection, and thinking about philosophical topics and questions. Of the philosophical branches I would say that I have a great interest in existentialism. Philosophy holds a great deal of personal worth to me as it feeds my desire to understand and know.

2. Hmmm...lets see. I personally believe that we as human beings are all individuals. I believe that we all have the choice to allow ourselves to grow. I also believe that sometimes people use labels as excuses to not be " free". Sigmund Freud once articulated that one of the reasons some people do not want freedom is because that entails responsibility- and most people may try to avoid true responsibility for their actions. I sometimes view people blaming labels that they can attach to themselves as an excuse for their actions or behaviors that are antagonistic to their development or deleterious to others; and I view that as their away of avoiding freedom to avoid responsibility. I believe that in general we are responsible for who we are as individuals.

I am also an anti positivist as I believe that psychology can only identify general patterns in people's behaviors; but it cannot understand how everyone's in the world mind operated exactly and as I said before people are in charge of a great deal of who they are as individuals.
 

scortia

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I would have loved to have majored in Philosophy in college, but I knew I was already majoring in a poor field in terms of employment,... philosophy is possibly THE worse degree you can get in respect to finding a job.

That said, I enjoy reading philosophy a great deal. I'm not obsessed with the minute details of the concept but moreso the philosophers and why they came to their conclusions and how those views can influence my own personal philosophy. I like a variety of eastern philosophies as well as philosophers who were big influences during their time (loved or hated): Voltaire, Socrates, Aurelius, Schopenhauer, Laotzu, etc. Also, being a huge lit-nerd, I love interpreting the philosophies of authors through their writing... like Kafka, who was just a fun mess of a guy.
 

Skyward

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2 THINGS:

#1)
Any others major/do graduate work in Philosophy? ... i'm starting to think it could be a red herring as I sift through what seems to be endless libraries of infinity containing unanswerable questions - or maybe this is an existential crisis? One doesnt exclude the other. Anyone else have a dangerous tendency towards philosophy ;) ? If so, what branch?


As much as I like philosophizing and casually debating philosophy with friends, I can't stand when I have to study 'INTPized' philosophy from a book or something for a class. I'm like cafe and don't have the attention span for it.

2nd:
You know what ... I've been reading that INFJ's have these particular, specific, 1 or 2 things that they vehemently and uncompromisingly believe in and do not budge on AND I want to know what others are - so lets do sort of a qualitative poll...

One thing I believe in is that God isn't dead or nonexistant. I was raised as a Christian so a Christian I'll be. Another couple are that extremes are rarely the answer, and imperfection is better than perfection because there are things that can be worked on. Improvement feels good.

and Twilight sucks.
 
Last edited:

eternal recurrence

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My feeling is that this existential interest is just a product of our age; that is the late 19th to 21st century. But in any case, I can relate to the attention span problem. This is a recurring point and actually a feeling I share...it differs depending on the type of philosophy we are talking about but good that i was reminded of this...

On the points of no-compromise: I'm surprised because I expected the points to be more so about concrete 'passions' we had rather than more abstract positions on human behaviour. This is not a complaint... its interesting that i misinterpreted this aspect of the description. It does make sense for them to be directed towards interaction or the individual in society, but I guess what I was wondering is INFJ's have been successful in finding a concrete passion (whether it be religion, the environment, psychology, geriatrics etc) that they decided to dedicate their life to OR whether their employment is out of sync with this trait...

Constantlyimagining - you are tempting me into free will v. determinism discussion, and i find them irresistible :smoke: but theres a slight confusion i think because the position of some biological orientated psychologists is that people's minds do operate according to certain patterns ... because they are built with the innate capacity for a restricted set of behaviours (and that these behaviours are determinable in the sense that we can also talk about patterns in behaviour in other mammals).
 

cascadeco

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What I believe in is never really fixed as I gather more and more information and "shift the blocks" in my mind. I am always open to new perspectives and I'm willing to admit my misconceptions and change my perspectives.

Yeah, I'm pretty grey when it comes to many things/topics... not strongly opinionated, as I never feel I have 'all' the information necessary to *really* make a good conclusion. I don't think I'm terribly rigid when it comes to most things, and I do kind of bend in the wind and can easily see different perspectives.

The one thing that I'd say is 100% unchanging though is my passion/care/concern for the environment and other creatures in this world. I'm not terribly human-centric...my concerns go much farther to pretty much every living organism.

I went through a philosophy phase when I was maybe 24-26....reading a lot of philosophy books. Found it very interesting. In my personal life though I could care less about arguing about any of it, pushing my own view, or nitpicking on semantics.
 

hokie912

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If anything, I believe in the power of human potential. I think that the human race is honestly amazing...for all the bad, sometimes I'm overwhelmed by how good people can be, how creative and innovative. I think it's a marvel how we've created complex societies and structures that more or less work on a daily basis and at the capacity for complex relationships. I don't really subscribe to a higher power, so from my perspective, a lot of people sell humanity short in favor of attributing that fundamental goodness and creativity and strength to some other being. It (perhaps irrationally) bothers me when people say, "God carried me through [some sort of traumatic experience]." I suppose there's nothing wrong with someone thinking that, and I understand the value that holds for many people, but I want to say, "No, that was you. You were the one who was strong enough to overcome that -- and isn't that amazing?"

There are certainly times when this view has been challenged, but I find that I keep coming back to it. It's something that appeals to me philosophically as well as having been reinforced by personal experiences. The ugly parts of human nature are there, and are frightening and extremely problematic, but they're nothing compared to the brilliance that we're capable of at our best. I guess you could call me an optimist.
 

the state i am in

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yeah, tho as nunki says it's difficult to follow infj interests in ideas in philosophy departments. i studied theory from anthropology, religion, sociology, lit criticism, psychology, cultural studies, rhetoric, and philosophy. there are some continental programs in the us, but most of this work is more relevant for other departments.

i have a wide-ranging group of favorites: carl jung, gregory bateson, john dewey, kenneth burke, and ludwig wittgenstein. i probably am most interested in transcendental idealism (move toward unity) and american pragmatism (practice comes first). they're like two opposing poles for me. i pretty much like anything Ni (bakhtin, heidegger, nietzsche, habermas, rorty, etc). i'm interested in language systems, thought (situated in communication), rhetoric/discourse analysis, and psychological systems.

i feel like i'm naturally, no matter what program i'm working within, attempting to understand the history/potential of human thought/communication. tho my formal program is language and literature with a focus on rhetoric and linguistics.
 

Alchemilla

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2 THINGS:

#1)
Any others major/do graduate work in Philosophy? ... i'm starting to think it could be a red herring as I sift through what seems to be endless libraries of infinity containing unanswerable questions - or maybe this is an existential crisis? One doesnt exclude the other. Anyone else have a dangerous tendency towards philosophy ;) ? If so, what branch?

I love philosophy, and had I the health I would like to study it at university. At the moment I'm more of a philosophical grazer: virtue ethics appeals to me (when I found out about personality types it suddenly seemed like a classic INFJ subject) as well as the study of consciousness and the human condition.

I like to have a few ideas to chew over, and probably this has a lot to do with poor concentration and lack of formal guidance.

(As an aside, do you think poor concentration is a feature of INFJs? Many people here seem to have it. I usually put mine down to the illness I have as cognitive dysfunction is a key feature. Perhaps it is also personality based.)

As much as I like philosophizing and casually debating philosophy with friends, I can't stand when I have to study 'INTPized' philosophy from a book or something for a class. I'm like cafe and don't have the attention span for it.

Ha! This is so true. I love the way you phrased that.

I am excited by ideas but they have to be lush rather than dry for me to really get into them. Learning and following ideas has been my favourite past time for the last few years. Philosophy and scepticism have made me a much stronger and a more rounded person.

How many INFJs find it easy to debate? I struggle with conflict, and I'd like to have more confidence in my ideas when vocalising them to others (I grew up with a VERY conflict averse mother, and the philosophically inclined friends I have are hard headed goats that like to clash horns).

My feeling is that this existential interest is just a product of our age; that is the late 19th to 21st century. But in any case, I can relate to the attention span problem. This is a recurring point and actually a feeling I share...it differs depending on the type of philosophy we are talking about but good that i was reminded of this...

On the points of no-compromise: I'm surprised because I expected the points to be more so about concrete 'passions' we had rather than more abstract positions on human behaviour. This is not a complaint... its interesting that i misinterpreted this aspect of the description. It does make sense for them to be directed towards interaction or the individual in society...

I think these are both interesting points. In regards to the latter, I also thought people would be more specific rather than abstract. I assumed that maybe this trait of being an INFJ didn't apply to me but perhaps I just misunderstood it like you said (I'm new to personality typing!)

Rather than having "a passion" I just am passionate.
 

whatusername

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2 THINGS:

#1)
Any others major/do graduate work in Philosophy? ... i'm starting to think it could be a red herring as I sift through what seems to be endless libraries of infinity containing unanswerable questions - or maybe this is an existential crisis? One doesnt exclude the other. Anyone else have a dangerous tendency towards philosophy ;) ? If so, what branch?

2nd:
You know what ... I've been reading that INFJ's have these particular, specific, 1 or 2 things that they vehemently and uncompromisingly believe in and do not budge on AND I want to know what others are - so lets do sort of a qualitative poll...

I majored in Philosophy in college, but only as a preparatory course for law school. At least that's how I treated it initially. I think that at first, one might feel overwhelmed by all the ideas and questions that philosophy presents and asks, respectively, but in the end, you sort of find yourself lifting above all these and just appreciating them for the beautiful and well-wrought systems of thought they are. I'm thinking of course in terms of Hegel, Leibniz etc., who were more interested in building these complex thought-systems more than anything.

At the same time, some of these philosophers decide to, ehem, mess with your head a little (I'm thinking in terms of Bertrand Russel, Wittgenstein, et al.) who break down our own ways of thinking, down to the level of speech/language. It can get pretty intense, but I think if you're able to transcend these systems and appreciate them from afar, you're good. :)

Of all the INFJ characteristics, I find that the "trait" we have with regard to certain intractable principles holds truest for me. There are some non-negotiable principles for me, around which revolve all the others. And what's odd is that if you ask me what they are, I wouldn't be able to tell you; it's just in the pulse of things, when something that contradicts these "principles" goes my way, a sort of internal alarm goes off. Weird, I know. :shock:
 

Omission1234

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i dont think i have the patience for philosophy in university or even in a coffee house, and im pretty sure i have alot of patience :D. I love reading it myself in my spare timee and really anything. I'm studying humanities so anthropology and folklore are super interesting. I also enjoy doing religious studies classes im doing a minor. But as far as spiritual/ religious beliefs go i think talking about would kind of ruin them for me... if that makes sense. but i do enjoy listening to others talk about beliefs, views, and how certain things and or people have impacted them. ( im into listening not telling haha).
"My ENFJ twin reads quite a lot of philosophy, and hermaneutical types of books, but isn't such a fan of the existential genre as my INFJ father. "Slaughter House Five" is one of his favorite books, if that tells you anything. The Introversion must have some effect on these sorts of preferences. "
I love slaughter house five, and i do enjoy thinking about or sometimes depending with whom it is ill talk about existential ideas, stories or jokes.... hahah im really nerdy.. whatever :D hahha
 
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