Importance of Perspective

[Gustaf]

I think it's hugely important to beliefs, although (obviously) not reality.  Not many people abandon the majority of the philosophical beliefs with which they were brought up.  We, I think, have 90% Christian and Muslim countries for a reason.  Our fundamental beliefs are more easily shaped by our environment and society than we'd like to admit.  Oftentimes they are shaped into unerring belief, even though we readily admit that we mostly came on the beliefs because they were passed down to us.

As for personal perspective...in philosophical discourse, what else is there?

So, I voted, "Very important."  Not terminal, but very important.

The bolded part is not a given to everyone.

Anyway, I have to ask PiT a question too. Do you mean what importance it has in forming one's own opinions or what importance it has or should have in philosophical discussions? I don't see these as the same thing, you see.

And I'd also like to extend a welcome to the forum. Philosophy threads I always enjoy.

[Gustaf]

Ah. In that case I think we disagree. I'm a pretty objectivist guy in my outlook, so I view philosophical opinions as independent entities that should be treated as such on their own merits (to a great extent anyway).

The tendency to try and link an opinion to the person expressing it and disqualifying it in that way is something I find to be a common and anti-intellectual practice.