Forgive me for interrupting, I just wanted to comment on point no.2
I studied Marketing/Advertising, and I also never took a class on Philosophy. But I love reading, and read a few books from writers who wrote kinda philosophical stuff like paulo coelho, jostein gaarder, antoine saint exupery (The Little Prince).
I know the names of A LOT of famous philosophers, but I can't tell you which philosophical theory came from which philosopher. There is no one theory or school of thought that I fully agree with anyway, so I couldn't say that I'm a nihilist or existentialist or whatever.
My point is, you don't have to be a "philosopher" or studied "philosophy" to talk about philosophy! All you need is an open mind and some free time to read Wikipedia =)
@somethingrandom - you are most welcome.
Having read and considered your comments;
I think what I am really getting at is that, in order for philosophy to have the positive impact it could have on society - it needs to be introduced more widespread in mainstream education, otherwise it's just great as a social conversation piece and ever evolving in academic circles.
I think you have articulated my point better than I could, in terms of the theoretical context of the various philosophies. Without that background one tends to create one's own context, which could be problematic.
I agree that philosophy should be introduced in mainstream education, like Maths or Science!
Creating your own context based on the information you have is a human thing, as everyone interprets things differently anyway, that's why there are so many versions/offshoots of the same religion or philosophy.
Hha, fair enough, but I'm cool with...
Not so cool with: Creating your own context based on the information you don't have...
HAHA! True that =)