Philosophy is dead. Dead words nothing else -- a therapy. Transformation only possible through meditation.
> Transformation only possible through meditation.
Descarte's Meditations on First Philosophy? That's quite a place to start.
Philosophy as a public service
41–50 of 99 posts
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my program, we had a saying that lowbrow philosophers end every argument with "Plato said it first"; middlebrows say "Kant said it first"; highbrows say "Wittgenstein said it first." Modern philosophy hasn't "obviated" Plato, per se, but any competent philosopher today can discuss what Plato thought generally and how/why we think differently today. The philosophical method of analysis and argument remains, but no…
With some exceptions. Mathematical Platonism is still taken quite seriously, though it's evolved a bit since the Meno.
Interesting. How's Intuitionism doing?
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#43Relatedly, if anyone is looking to get started with philosophy, Crash Course has a fantastic video series on it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdY...
Another approach is reading a few articles from https://www.iep.utm.edu/ and http://plato.stanford.edu/ But IMHO the best course of action would be to acquire logic proficiency first. And no, I'm not talking about the logic programmers usually know, but rather formal and informal philosophical logic. Proficiency in logic is to philosophy like reading sheet music is to music. You can get by without it, but it will hel…
this the "read TAOCP to learn how to program" of philosophy.
>But IMHO the best course of action would be to acquire logic proficiency first.
there is plenty of continental thought that isn't straightforward syllogisms (basically everything interesting kant).
imho the very short guides are really good for this
https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/v/very-short-...
not too expensive, written by experts. i can speak for peter singers intro to hegel and intro to marx.
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> begs the question I normally wouldn’t be pedantic about this but because this is a discussion about philosophy I have to point out that it doesn’t “beg the question”. “Begging the question” is an informal logical fallacy where an argument’s premises assume that its conclusion is true so it ends up being circular. I think you mean it “raises the question”.
The problem is 'begs the question' is not an intuitive phrase to describe the formal definition, so we're going to be stuck with this correction forever. At this point I feel it has only survived as a form of shibboleth.
>The problem is 'begs the question' is not an intuitive phrase to describe the formal definition
it does if you look at the etymology; beg comes begging off i.e. asking for exemption from something. it's archaic at this point of course but still fairly intelligible in that use; "he begged off doing his chores".
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#45The greatest public service Philosophy can provide is helping us become better people. This is philosophy as understood in the Socratic tradition, and many people have since forgotten this once chief aim of philosophical endeavor.
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
With some exceptions. Mathematical Platonism is still taken quite seriously, though it's evolved a bit since the Meno.
Interesting. How's Intuitionism doing?
Intuitionism/constructivism has gained much momentum in recent years.
It is the foundation for Hawking’s model-dependent realism [1]; or more radically Dummett’s anti-realism [2].
Speaking purely about Mathematics - there have been great strides in constructive mathematics in the last 3-4 decades, and great overlaps with computer science (Curry-Howard-Lambek correspondence). A formalist might even say that the fields of logic, mathematics and computer science are identical.
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another approach is reading a few articles from https://www.iep.utm.edu/ and http://plato.stanford.edu/ But IMHO the best course of action would be to acquire logic proficiency first. And no, I'm not talking about the logic programmers usually know, but rather formal and informal philosophical logic. Proficiency in logic is to philosophy like reading sheet music is to music. You can get by without it, but it will hel…
this the "read TAOCP to learn how to program" of philosophy. >But IMHO the best course of action would be to acquire logic proficiency first. there is plenty of continental thought that isn't straightforward syllogisms (basically everything interesting kant). imho the very short guides are really good for this https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/v/very-short-... not too expensive, written by experts. i can…
Informal logic is not necessarily syllogistic. What's more important is exploring distinctions and terms in a dialectical manner.
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another approach is reading a few articles from https://www.iep.utm.edu/ and http://plato.stanford.edu/ But IMHO the best course of action would be to acquire logic proficiency first. And no, I'm not talking about the logic programmers usually know, but rather formal and informal philosophical logic. Proficiency in logic is to philosophy like reading sheet music is to music. You can get by without it, but it will hel…
"A few articles?" This is what discoverability looks like on both of those sites: https://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html . Just start at "A"? I think non-academic people like me are served perfectly well by reading Spinoza's Ethics. Googling for more from there will cover almost all of post-dualism Western phil.
yeah encyclopedias don't provide any guidance.
Wikipedia actually does a pretty good job of this. They have a section on the side bar for "Influences" (who influenced this philosopher and "Influenced" (who this philosopher influenced.)
Aristotle has this epic entry:
Influences: Plato
Influenced: Virtually all subsequent Western philosophy, Christian philosophy and pre-Enlightenment science (see List of writers influenced by Aristotle)
When I was in my first Philosophy seminar, our professor started off by saying, "all of western philosophy is a footnote to Aristotle."
He was a real one.
You could also google for philosophy course syllabi, but it's not always easy to know _why_ one philosopher influenced another or the significance in political theory, ethics, etc.
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
> begs the question I normally wouldn’t be pedantic about this but because this is a discussion about philosophy I have to point out that it doesn’t “beg the question”. “Begging the question” is an informal logical fallacy where an argument’s premises assume that its conclusion is true so it ends up being circular. I think you mean it “raises the question”.
The problem is 'begs the question' is not an intuitive phrase to describe the formal definition, so we're going to be stuck with this correction forever. At this point I feel it has only survived as a form of shibboleth.
You’d think that, but we pedants managed to rescue the word “ironic” at one point.
Re: Philosophy as a public service
#50I believe what the world needs now is philosophy. What we're experiencing is a crisis of meaning. Philosophy is a shield against meaninglessness and conceptual confusion. In an information environment full of overabundant conflicting and clashing signals, we need philosophy to straighten it out and confer order to the perceptual field. The fact that many people don't understand or hold philosophy in contempt is a major disservice to their own capacity for mastering their intellectual horizons.
As Chesterton said, philosophy is simply thought that has been thought out. We're going to work with thoughts either way, but if we haven't thought it out, we are sleepwalking, under the influence of a foreign presence we have not taken the time to identify and dissect.