Is Philosophy Still A Thing ?

[Archie_tect]

Three current philosophers, who also happen to be brilliant authors.....

Ray Monk (books on Wittgenstein, Russell and Oppenheimer)
Cheryl Misak (book on Frank Ramsay - a sheer excess of power)
Jo Wollf (An introduction to political philosophy)

I can thoroughly recommend all of them. Clever people but good at communication.

Thanks Rocky.

Just ordered this
Political Thought (Oxford Readers)Paperback – 16 Dec. 1999
by Michael Rosen (Editor), Jonathan Wolff (Editor)

Thought I'd start with a general collection of essays... never taken time out to read any philosophy so looking forward to getting it.... it's never too late!

 

[Rocky]

Thanks Rocky.

Just ordered this
Political Thought (Oxford Readers)Paperback – 16 Dec. 1999
by Michael Rosen (Editor), Jonathan Wolff (Editor)

Thought I'd start with a general collection of essays... never taken time out to read any philosophy so looking forward to getting it.... it's never too late!

Great!!!

 

[Punkawallah]

If we're getting whimsical.

From the Principa Discordia:

10. The Earth quakes and the heavens rattle;
the beasts of nature flock together and the
nations of men flock apart; volcanoes usher up
heat while elsewhere water becomes ice and
melts. And then, on other days, it just rains.
11. Indeed do many things come to pass.
HBT; The Book of Predictions, Chap. 19

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Three current philosophers, who also happen to be brilliant authors.....

Ray Monk (books on Wittgenstein, Russell and Oppenheimer)
Cheryl Misak (book on Frank Ramsay - a sheer excess of power)
Jo Wollf (An introduction to political philosophy)

I can thoroughly recommend all of them. Clever people but good at communication.

So they may be brilliant and clever and good at communicating but what do they contribute to the world ? eg I get what a Nobel winning medic or physicist contributes, I get what an accomplished artist or author contributes, but what does a brilliant and clever philosopher contribute ? Are they simply just another form of artist/author ?

 

[Dolorous Edd]

So they may be brilliant and clever and good at communicating but what do they contribute to the world ? eg I get what a Nobel winning medic or physicist contributes, I get what an accomplished artist or author contributes, but what does a brilliant and clever philosopher contribute ? Are they simply just another form of artist/author ?

Or to paraphrase Douglas Adams, if there were to be a national philosophers' strike, who exactly would that inconvenience?

 

[Punkawallah]

Although the same could be said for politicians, astronomers, physicists etc.

 

[Andy in Germany]

There are often questions about philosophers on University Challenge, many from ancient times, many from 18th and 19th centuries, a few from the 20th century. But they seem to stop around the 1960’s. Outside of quiz shows and history programmes I have never heard them mentioned. From time to time we hear reports in the news of advances in all sorts of highly academic subjects, physics, maths, sometimes history, but never anything, I stand to be corrected, about philosophy. Do philosophers still exist now ? And in what way does their work contribute to modern life ?

This may answer some of the questions. Helem Pluckrose gives a summary of Postmodern philosophers and how their theories affected the way we think over the last century and especially the last fifty years or so.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Although the same could be said for politicians, astronomers, physicists etc.

Without politicians fighting for our various causes we would still be subjects to the divine rights of kings and religions. Without physicists we would have no technology. Without astronomers we wouldn’t understand tides and would still be fleeing in fear every time a comet appeared.

 

[mudsticks]

So they may be brilliant and clever and good at communicating but what do they contribute to the world ? eg I get what a Nobel winning medic or physicist contributes, I get what an accomplished artist or author contributes, but what does a brilliant and clever philosopher contribute ? Are they simply just another form of artist/author ?

I'd say being brilliant and clever and good at communicating are reasonable enough things to be by themselves.

And if they make us consider ours lives and the nature of existence, that's kind of cool too.

Although the same could be said for politicians, astronomers, physicists etc.

I don't know, the above are arguably more useful than say..

Tabloid journalists

Darts commentators

Pelmet manufacturers.

Or purveyors of those bits of plastic carp. that go inside crackers.

Maybe philosophers are there to inspire us to wonder and think, over our morning tea and biscuits..

That's enough by itself I reckon

 

[Rocky]

So they may be brilliant and clever and good at communicating but what do they contribute to the world ? eg I get what a Nobel winning medic or physicist contributes, I get what an accomplished artist or author contributes, but what does a brilliant and clever philosopher contribute ? Are they simply just another form of artist/author ?

All are philosophers in their own right as well as authors. Look at Jo Wolf’s lecture on the pandemic for example


View: https://youtu.be/JroOrmtAgPw


They help us to think about the world and answer questions such as: what should I do? What can I wish for? How do I know? What can I know?

All the more important to us when making life choices and decisions in these troubled days.

 

[Rocky]

By the way physics and medicine are nothing without philosophy. Take an MRI scanner……how was this developed? Popper and Kuhn tell us how science advances - methods such as falsification and paradigm shifts. How do we know the electric signals it sends out really represent the internal organs it’s scanning? Philosophy helps with this.

How do we know randomised controlled trials work in the development of medicine? What are their limitations? Epistemology helps with this.

We’d know little and trust even less without philosophers.

 

[mudsticks]

By the way physics and medicine are nothing without philosophy. Take an MRI scanner……how was this developed? Popper and Kuhn tell us how science advances - methods such as falsification and paradigm shifts. How do we know the electric signals it sends out really represent the internal organs it’s scanning? Philosophy helps with this.

How do we know randomised controlled trials work in the development of medicine? What are their limitations? Epistemology helps with this.

We’d know little and trust even less without philosophers.

Plus philosophy feeds into ethics.

Or is ethics technically a branch of philosophy? idk.

Without sound ethics at play, science and technology can be used for highly suspect ends.

 

[Rocky]

Plus philosophy feeds into ethics.

Or is ethics technically a branch of philosophy? idk.

Without sound ethics at play, science and technology can be used for highly suspect ends.

Moral philosophy!!

Yes, science has a poor record when it comes to ethics….Tuskegee, Nazi experiments, Henrietta Lacks and so on

 

[mudsticks]

Moral philosophy!!

Yes, science has a poor record when it comes to ethics….Tuskegee, Nazi experiments, Henrietta Lacks and so on

Just because you can..

Doesn't mean you should

 

[mudsticks]

Oh, Pelmet.

Phew ... For a moment there the thread teetered on the brink of meltdown.

Some might consider i hold a few off beat opinions...

But i'm not that much of a dangerous controversialist