What do you all think of the general state of philosophy today? Here are some quick points that I would have... 1) Too ivory tower: Seems to me that there isn't enough promotion of philosophy as a way of life for the common person. Too many over-intellectualized words and phrases. 2) Not enough applied philosophy: Too much confusion between "the history of philosophy" and the "doing" of philosophy. Too much reliance on out of date concepts from the masters, without updating concepts in the light of new scientific knowledge. But I'd love to hear other opinions on this. Thanks Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Tiberius, I am going to give a controversial opinion, here goes. Natural hilosophy(or the philosophy of nature) has pretty much been relegated to science, and with good reason, The natural philosophers got many things wrong.(i.e. Abaolutes, we later learned (from scientists) that there is no absolute position, nor absolute time). (of course, given, in the age of the greek philosophers science and philosophy were not easily separated). REad about how Copernicus had to tread lightly to not offend the natural philosophers by using mathematical calculations to show that their worldview had to be innaccurate). I think that today the main forte of philosophers is ethics, yet pragmatically, religion, politics and science seems to dominate even that aspect. Im' even having a hard time here figuring out exactly what it is pure philosophers do, or even contribute to modern society. Examples ?
I completely agree with you Fortuna. In fact, when I say "philosophy" I mean it in the modern sense (ethics, language, etc), which is distinctly different from science today. I would never advocate using philosophy to determine facts about nature, and wasn't aware my question touched on that - sorry for the confusion. In fact, I'd say that's my #3 issue I have with philosophy today - not enough appreciation of physical science. I just read a blog entry of a philosophy student talking about the nature of understanding and knowledge and nowhere in the entire article were neurons or brain function even mentioned - the very thing at the heart of what's being discussed. When I brought it up, the response was as if the scientific route was "just another way of looking at it." But the fact that the philosophy student hadn't even considered it shows just how off base and out of touch much philosophy is in a lot of areas.
Both of your observations are quite astute. Both of you however have forgotten what the object of philosophy is: love of wisdom. Ideally then, the proper 'objective' of philosophy is to determine how to live a good life. So, as you both pointed out, the realms of ethics and politics are certainly relevant realms for contemporary philosophy to focus on. Unfortunately for philosophy, the aforementioned 'ivory tower' effect has rendered most of current philosophical thought insignificant. IMHO philosophy should be introduced to grade school students. Nothing has taught me how to learn better than studying philosophy has.
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Quite right. It is unfortunate that philosophy has been relegated to academia. If it were a language, it would be Latin. Most people think of philosophy as some branch of history or something. They don't realize that philosophers once thought of it as a way of life - a guiding force in their daily lives. I agree with you that philosophy should be taught at all grade levels. Because most students get their first taste of philosophy in college, which is appropriately college-level, then the impression is that philosophy is "hard". But if they taught it at lower levels it would of course be adjusted to be fitting to the age range, just as any other topic is. Unfortunately, many school boards would see it as a luxury (as they unfortunately see art classes) and not realize how beneficial it would be to the student's lives and learning in all other areas. In fact, a grade school curriculum would probably be pretty effective if it started with philosophy at its core, and then had the other subjects branched off from that.
The state of philosophy today is Michigan. um... philosophy in koine greek means love of wisdom (philia and sophia combined) This wisdom has branched out into many different subcatogories. Right now philosophy in academia is extremely esoteric. That means if you just grab a random paper, you won't understand a thing. It's not really the concept you don't understand but the language. There are still a lot left to be discovered yet. I don't believe anyone has actually proved any philosophical concept to be absolute. People used to think math was absolute but not anymore. I don't think anyone has proven that the external world actually exist...
I agree and disagree. First, nothing should be for the "common man." The common man is a brute, an average. The common man is simply a mob, where all appeals to force and fear ultimately win. The common man would be the majority of people, who typically aren't very discerning. How would reality TV do so well if it weren't for the common man? I think all things should be for the best of man, not some middle point inbetween which "is good enough." Good enough is a euphemism for mediocre. Philosophy has reached a point of esotericism where it is only accessible by the people who work within the field. However, this has usually been the case. Try reading Kant. He's a thick motherfucker.
You only have to look at what happened when mediocrities read philosophers like Nietzsche and Marx to see why philosophy is best left to philosophers.
Yes but I'm not talking about "dumbing down" philosophy. There should still be the upper levels, left to philosophers, but if it is ONLY there, then it is simply a pasttime, nothing more. What I'm talking about is a useful philosophy which common people can make use of - the return of the idea that philosophy is to be used in daily life, not simply something in textbooks only. Those who would write and conduct philosophy would still be the professional philosophers.
To be honest people seemed to have been fooled by a man named Quine or at least his mode of thinking that philosophy should be a subset of modern science. His arguments are actually pretty hollow so I would guess was more trying to represent the modern belief regarding philosophy rather than pioneer it. In any case I believe this type of thinking will soon be dealt with, so I won't bother to get into details.
That is most accurate. All sciences came from philosophy. In fact, even some religions seem to have come from some philosophies...
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That's too big. Feels like your ego is too big for these forums, Dood_2000 .... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Welcome anyways... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I guess Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
