[Suki]

Eddie,
Philosophy by its very nature is not a "hard" science. It doesn't sufficiently narrow its study to one natural law or a specific observable phenomenon, therefore it is subject to a social values related "subjective" interpretation.

Your philosophy on any given subject whether of nature or of society then would be open for debate and questioning simply because philosophy is an invitation to knowledge. The rough definition of philosophy is philo-offspring or son and sophy-ancient Greek word associated with Sophia the goddess of knowledge (and nature). The offspring of knowledge could be the observation of nature and natural laws, but making and testing theories based on those observations falls into the hard science categories.

How you have experienced life and how based on those life experiences and on how you have coped with the challenges life has thrown at you Eddie is your basic philosophy (but it is subjective) and could be either unique or shared by others. It is still going to be the "truth" to you. But it might not be the "truth" to others.

On the question of professionals agreeing...professional scientists, doctors, and others in the past have been notorious resisters of change or of change of doctrine or practice, in short...almost dogmatic. Yet only when the new contributor to knowledge's theories are time-tested and give consistently superior results are these new schools of thought become more universally accepted in any academic or professional field.

Eddie, the laypeople sometimes disappoint us in terms of being easily influenced by powerful "media" and the interests of the overclass and the elite. But we should not discount their life experiences and their existences when we want to create social change. Instead, those of us that have had the priveledges of better educations have the responsibility of interacting with them and serving them with absolutely no self-interest except to help them to accept a higher-consciousness and social awareness level.

Sometimes laypeople have the sharpest and freshest perspectives on things. I enjoy talking to you Eddie, I hope we have more lively discussions in the future.

Warm regards,
Suki