Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

Post by whimsicalism » Fri, Nov 20, 2020, 5:49 PM UTC

jfengel wrote: post #36

whimsicalism wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philosophy is obviously not useless for science, but continental philosophy is useless. The main problem with philosophy of science nowadays is that not enough scientists act as philosophers.

"Continental philosophy" isn't useless, either, except by the definitions of those who made up the term "continental philosophy". They have a very limited notion of what "utility" is. The things targeted as "continental philosophy" are mostly meaning-of-life questions. Those aren't "useful", but they're important to people. It's no more useless than literature or video games or skiing, which you don't need but are ex…

Post by keiferski » Fri, Nov 20, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

whimsicalism wrote: post #39

keiferski wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it basically comes down to how you are defining religion. The idea being that defining it as inherently supernatural is impossible and simply a linguistic reshuffling, when it's really more like "you've simply started calling your belief system something else, but it's actually still just Christian." Keep in mind here that Christianity, like all religions, is a really big tent. Put in other terms, the Western w…

I clearly have christian and western values instilled in me, I grew up in the US. But that doesn't mean I practice or believe in a religion or deity? Idk, this argument seems pretty facile and I've spent a lot of time reading philosophy of religion.

Post by Nacdor » Fri, Nov 20, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

Post by keiferski » Fri, Nov 20, 2020, 6:02 PM UTC

quanticle wrote: post #38

keiferski wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it basically comes down to how you are defining religion. The idea being that defining it as inherently supernatural is impossible and simply a linguistic reshuffling, when it's really more like "you've simply started calling your belief system something else, but it's actually still just Christian." Keep in mind here that Christianity, like all religions, is a really big tent. Put in other terms, the Western w…

Put in other terms, the Western world in 2020 likes to act as if it reinvented itself afresh in the 1700-1800-1900s, but in reality, everything about "secular" knowledge has been formed in thousands of years of Christian culture. That makes sense only if you redefine "Christianity" to mean "respect for universal human rights". By that logic most everyone is a Christian. Most Hindus and Buddhists would be Christian to…

Post by keiferski » Fri, Nov 20, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

whimsicalism wrote: post #44

keiferski wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a pretty complex topic, but I'll go back to my question that I posed: if your behaviors indicate one thing, but your spoken word indicates another, what does that mean? Is is possible that modern secular culture is simply Christianity-as-act, but with the explicit verbal affirmation of belief removed? Religions change just as much as cultures do, and I would say that modern culture is quite obsessed with "ver…

I think there is a difference between having cultural values and believing in a deity. We can expand the definition of religion to include those sets of cultural values, but then I worry that: a. the word religion loses meaning b. someone who was raised in the Islamic world and comes to the States and converts to Judaism can never stop being a Muslim? Even if they weren't one to start with? That seems absurd to me.