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Whither philosophy?

aeon.co

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Re: Whither philosophy?

#21

Post by _yb2s »

richardanaya wrote: post #8

[flagged]

Ummm… have you actually read any other philosophy? Ayn Rands ideas are mostly just watered down and simplified ripoffs of Nietzsche. His ideas were both deeper, and more useful and practical in real life, but, to be blunt, I don’t think she was intelligent enough to fully grasp them.

In terms of Ayn Rands own stated goals of affirming life, and taking responsibility, the ancient Stoics had more effective methods to actually achieve that goal in real life. The difference is obvious- many of the people I admire most were practicing stoics, I cannot think of anyone I deeply admire that followed Rand in real life.

Re: Whither philosophy?

#22

Post by richardanaya »

b450 wrote: post #17
richardanaya wrote: post #8

[flagged]

Setting aside the significance of Rand in the philosophical canon (which is minimal, though that almost certainly reflects a bias against her politics), the claim that Rand is the only realist philosopher is pretty outrageous.

"realist" philosopher?

Re: Whither philosophy?

#23

Post by hotnfresh »

simbolit wrote: post #16
richardanaya wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you even aware of the books and articles she wrote for decades? Check your premises.

Yes.

How far'd you make it in The Virtue of Selfishness before throwing it across the room for yet another dubious premise that's presented as fact without justification, used to build a giant sandcastle of reasoning upon, and never revisited with an eye to addressing the obvious objections to it?

Re: Whither philosophy?

#24

Post by richardanaya »

_yb2s wrote: post #21
richardanaya wrote: post #8

[flagged]

Ummm… have you actually read any other philosophy? Ayn Rands ideas are mostly just watered down and simplified ripoffs of Nietzsche. His ideas were both deeper, and more useful and practical in real life, but, to be blunt, I don’t think she was intelligent enough to fully grasp them. In terms of Ayn Rands own stated goals of affirming life, and taking responsibility, the ancient Stoics had more effective methods to a…

> Ayn Rands ideas are mostly just watered down and simplified ripoffs of Nietzsche.

Name one epistemological idea she ripped off from Nietzche.

Re: Whither philosophy?

#25

Post by vehemenz »

simbolit wrote: post #14
richardanaya wrote: post #8

[flagged]

The idea that Ayn Rand is a philosopher in any meaningful sense is very debatable. She was an author of fiction, like Terry Pratchett. Lots of people draw philosophical inspiration from Pratchett, but that doesn't make him a philosopher. Sorry to burst some bubble here, but most of the philosophical content of her writings is just rehashed Nietzsche, sometimes near-verbatim. All the while she claimed, she never read…

I don't think we need to gatekeep who philosophers are. It's okay if she's a bad philosopher. There are already so many already; what's one more?

Re: Whither philosophy?

#26

Post by vik0 »

ranprieur wrote: post #4

I have a BA in philosophy. Rather than learning the truth, I discovered that almost all philosophers were wrong about almost everything. But in tracing the history of wrongness, wrestling with all the fashions of thinking, you learn to think with precision. That skill continues to help me.

>But in tracing the history of wrongness, wrestling with all the fashions of thinking, you learn to think with precision

So...Falsifiability?

Re: Whither philosophy?

#27

Post by richardanaya »

hotnfresh wrote: post #19
richardanaya wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

They don't have to know it's Plato, and it doesn't depend on whether the rest of what he wrote is correct. Works for just about any case where someone thinks they've got a pat, simple definition of "justice" (often implicitly the case, if not explicitly) and have drawn some conclusions based on that. All it needs to demonstrate (and it does it rather successfully) is that simple "I've got the answer to this moral que…

> it doesn't depend on whether the rest of what he wrote is correct

Do you accept ideas out of context?

Re: Whither philosophy?

#28

Post by b450 »

richardanaya wrote: post #22
b450 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Setting aside the significance of Rand in the philosophical canon (which is minimal, though that almost certainly reflects a bias against her politics), the claim that Rand is the only realist philosopher is pretty outrageous.

"realist" philosopher?

Maybe not the right term. My point is that many philosophers believe that reality (a) is basically as it seems, and/or (b) is basically knowable. It's very odd to say that those views are exclusive to Rand.

edit: one nice example would be Thomas Reid.

Re: Whither philosophy?

#29

Post by simbolit »

dragonwriter wrote: post #20
simbolit wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that Ayn Rand is a philosopher in any meaningful sense is very debatable. She was an author of fiction, like Terry Pratchett. Lots of people draw philosophical inspiration from Pratchett, but that doesn't make him a philosopher. Sorry to burst some bubble here, but most of the philosophical content of her writings is just rehashed Nietzsche, sometimes near-verbatim. All the while she claimed, she never read…

> The idea that Ayn Rand is a philosopher in any meaningful sense is very debatable. Its not entirely unfair, though "polemicist" is more accurate than "philosopher"; moreso than to say that Ayn Rand is worth reading in any meaningful way, at least. > She was an author of fiction, like Terry Pratchett. In terms of the works that make this a reasonable statement, I would more say she was an author of religious (or, if…

Can agree with what you write.
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