41–50 of 71 posts
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Do you have some examples of "solved" philosophical problems moving into natural sciences or mathematics? That sounds quite interesting.
Does X lead to Y? Statistics today can answer the question of causality in many cases, especially the controlled studies, and that use to be the domain of philosophy.
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Marx is a good example of why philosophy can be very dangerous. Marx's ideas have literally caused the deaths of millions in Soviet Russia, Communist China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia, Cuba, and probably others. Besides keeping people desperately impoverished in places like Venezuela. I'm not saying we sholdn't do philosophy because it can be dangerous. Philosophy can also be very good. In fact, we need the good…
Have you read Marx?
I'm surprised no one has yet cited pg's "How to do Philosophy" ( http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html ). I like his implicit explanation: the healthier parts of what used to be philosophy have been turned into the sciences (and some social, experimental sciences) while the less healthy parts have remained (disconnected questions about what reality is, which feels like a variant of "How many angels can dance on the h…
by Robert Hass
I'm surprised no one has yet cited pg's "How to do Philosophy" ( http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html ). I like his implicit explanation: the healthier parts of what used to be philosophy have been turned into the sciences (and some social, experimental sciences) while the less healthy parts have remained (disconnected questions about what reality is, which feels like a variant of "How many angels can dance on the h…
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Having a lot of professors living on the public dime and not contributing anything back is the effect of a rich (and decadent) society, not the cause .
There's a vast difference between maximizing society's total productivity and maximizing the amount of time people spend working on increasing economic output. Namely, the amount of technology used. Since most of us on Hacker News work in some form of technology, I'd say its in our economic interest not to apply terms of moral condemnation like "decadent" to forms of society that generate more demand for our skills ;…
In general---I think there are some good ones. And I think a lot of the contribute positively through their teaching, just not their research and publications. But note that the primary focus and goal of professors at top-tier universities is research.
Also, I disagree with your dichotomy between "economic output" and "society's total productivity," but that's a separate issue.
Also, I'm not going to be dishonest for the sake of narrow economic interest, which is what you are asking me to do.
I'm surprised no one has yet cited pg's "How to do Philosophy" ( http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html ). I like his implicit explanation: the healthier parts of what used to be philosophy have been turned into the sciences (and some social, experimental sciences) while the less healthy parts have remained (disconnected questions about what reality is, which feels like a variant of "How many angels can dance on the h…
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Frequently when philosophers solve a particular problem, it moves out of the realm of pure philosophy and into more "practical" fields, such as mathematics, the natural sciences, justice, or politics.
Do you have some examples of "solved" philosophical problems moving into natural sciences or mathematics? That sounds quite interesting.
Statistical decision theory also supercedes many philosophical problems.
A number of lesswrong articles, typically addressing the nature of categories and how to reason based on them, also move into this territory and browsing lesswrong is probably worthwhile if you are interested.
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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.