3 ms·
Questions that can be answered aren't the domain of philosophy, and if these questions ever do get answered the question gets retrospectively moved out of the p
by planetguy 14y ago
Questions that can be answered aren't the domain of philosophy, and if these questions ever do get answered the question gets retrospectively moved out of the philosophers' domain. Often philosophers do answer questions -- e.g. Russell answered a whole bunch, but we call the bits where he actually got definite answers "mathematics".
Philosophy, done right, isn't about answering questions but it is about refining them. Consider a difficult question, consider the logical consequences of a bunch of possible answers, and hopefully pop out at the other end with a better question. A question like "What is the right way to behave?" might not ever get answered definitively, but at least we can put labels on various possible schools of thought and distinguish between them in a bunch of rather contrived situations involving lifeboats and runaway trains.
- derleth 14y agoI'd deny that mathematics is at all related to philosophy except to about the same level physics, for example, is. Mathematics is a wonderful intellectual game that occasionally (and unpredictably) has results useful for science and engineering.
- jchrisa 14y agoIn my Philosophy dept Frege was well read. So we spent a lot of time with the foundations of set theory and arithmetic. Looks like he has an article "What is a Function?" but I don't think I've read it.
- planetguy 14y agoSo where, in your opinion, is the boundary between philosophy and mathematics? On which side is logic?
- derleth 14y agoPhilosophy discusses human problems. Mathematics is a symbol game. Logic is (at least) two concepts referred to with the same term and I won't answer until I know which one in specific you're talking about.
- rsanchez1 14y agoPhilosophy does not discuss human problems. Philosophy discusses human thought.