What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
huffingtonpost.com
What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
1–10 of 71 posts
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#2The problem with philosophy is that it seems to make progress only very slowly. As an outsider, it seems that their fundamental questions are still at the same level as those of Socrates and Plato. It would have been nice if this article had addressed this issue. For instance, by discussing what are the most important insights of the last decade.
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#3The problem with philosophy is that it seems to make progress only very slowly. As an outsider, it seems that their fundamental questions are still at the same level as those of Socrates and Plato. It would have been nice if this article had addressed this issue. For instance, by discussing what are the most important insights of the last decade.
Don't underestimate philosophy's power to change the world. Marx's critique of capitalism had a dramatic effect, for example.
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#4The problem with philosophy is that it seems to make progress only very slowly. As an outsider, it seems that their fundamental questions are still at the same level as those of Socrates and Plato. It would have been nice if this article had addressed this issue. For instance, by discussing what are the most important insights of the last decade.
Don't underestimate philosophy's power to change the world. Marx's critique of capitalism had a dramatic effect, for example.
Kant's, Hegel's and Nietszche's too
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#5Not sure this is the strongest argument for philosophy. Philosophy is valuable when it is directed to the inquiry of truth for the sake of discovering truth, not for some immediately practical application. This sort of exercise pushes against the limits of thought, and that leads to interesting and important places.
This isn't just true in philosophy. In the early 20th century physicists announced they had solved almost all of the problems in physics. One thing they hadn't got around to yet was figuring out the position of electrons at a given time. But it was popular to regard this is a trivial problem. How they bonded was a more practical issue, and they had solved that one. But those who pushed on with this seemingly trivial problem discovered that it wasn't trivial at all.
Turning unknown unknowns into known unknowns is not necessarily practical, but it is certainly valuable.
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't underestimate philosophy's power to change the world. Marx's critique of capitalism had a dramatic effect, for example.
Kant's, Hegel's and Nietszche's too
Aristotle gave us logic, which is the basis for rational inquiry in all fields. Also an important contribution.
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#7The problem with philosophy is that it seems to make progress only very slowly. As an outsider, it seems that their fundamental questions are still at the same level as those of Socrates and Plato. It would have been nice if this article had addressed this issue. For instance, by discussing what are the most important insights of the last decade.
I feel like a lot of outsiders see people like Zizek, and get the impression that philosophy today has a lot do with language and psychoanalysis. I'm not exactly sure what the insights are, but it at least feels like a very different brand than Socrates badgering people about what is justice.
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#8I would love to force people to pay for things I love to do. There's nothing wrong with teaching philosophy, but stealing money to do so is wrong and lazy. What if I'd rather my money go toward cancer research? This guy would deny me that opportunity. He's saying his preferences are more important than mine. There are plenty of ways to make money teaching philosophy: donations (see FDR on Youtube as an example), books, speaking at conferences--but that takes hard work and risk. And if you can't make a living, why not teach philosophy for free as an avocation? Contribute as if it's open source -- for the better of the community. Stealing money from people and justifying it after the fact seems unphilosophical.
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#9I would love to force people to pay for things I love to do. There's nothing wrong with teaching philosophy, but stealing money to do so is wrong and lazy. What if I'd rather my money go toward cancer research? This guy would deny me that opportunity. He's saying his preferences are more important than mine. There are plenty of ways to make money teaching philosophy: donations (see FDR on Youtube as an example), book…
You're arguing against taxes, not philosophy.
Re: What Is the Public Value of Philosophy?
#10The problem with philosophy is that it seems to make progress only very slowly. As an outsider, it seems that their fundamental questions are still at the same level as those of Socrates and Plato. It would have been nice if this article had addressed this issue. For instance, by discussing what are the most important insights of the last decade.
Don't underestimate philosophy's power to change the world. Marx's critique of capitalism had a dramatic effect, for example.
I suppose Marx is a good example of why philosophy can be more useful than it looks. Much as in AI, whenever a philosopher ends up making an important contribution it starts a new type of academic research (political economy in Marx's case) and is no longer considered to be philosophy.