4 ms·

What is at stake for you here? Where does the resentment come from? Like.. people write books, some people read them and get something out of them, whether som

What is at stake for you here? Where does the resentment come from? Like.. people write books, some people read them and get something out of them, whether something critical or something positive. Reading things you don't agree with can help you understand youself and your commitments better. No one is trying to pull a fast one on you specifically by writing a book. Like great, you are scientific realist, we get it. Congratulations. That's all it needs to be. I just don't know how you can even live a peaceful life just getting angry that there is "bad" philosophy out there. Who cares? The line between "good" philosophy and "bad" is fraught and has been talked about since there's been philosophy (in the West). Hence the figure of the sophist for Plato being absolutely essential. Imagine Socrates with no Thrasymachus. Nietzsche without Hegel. Wittgenstein without Russell. "Bad" philosophy is always only a future gift to a good one. We should be giddy in our tear downs of other thinkers, not angry and bitter. It just really doesn't make any sense to be like this!

astrange 2y ago
> Imagine Socrates with no Thrasymachus. Nietzsche without Hegel. Wittgenstein without Russell. "Bad" philosophy is always only a future gift to a good one. We should be giddy in our tear downs of other thinkers, not angry and bitter. One thing I notice about philosophy, especially the continental kind, is that it often seems to consist entirely of listing the names of philosophers rather than answering questions. Although continental philosophy also likes writing the question 50 different ways instead of attempting to answer it; the usual claim is that this is because they're asking questions whose answers can't be expressed in language or something like that.
- beepbooptheory 2y ago
  Just want to say thanks for taking the time to engage with what I said instead of just dancing around it to validate yourself. Because you said something substantial, I am now able to respond to it and, look at that, we have accomplished discourse.
jcelerier 2y ago
> What is at stake for you here? Well, for instance in some circles quoting Latour and showing that you are fully in agreement with his work is a way to really improve your chances to get cold, hard grant money. I know a lot of students who are forced to read Latour through their class and have to take it pretty much as gospel, in Concordia University in Montreal.
- beepbooptheory 2y ago
  That seems like something you should take up with the department in question. What a scandal!
calf 2y ago
It's funny, my comment said exactly what it said and you construed it all incorrectly. It's as if the more philosophy you people read, the less you can catch your own mistakes. Even people with PhDs (iirc they were a theoretical physicist patronizing somebody else's comment) like the person my comment was originally directed at (if you care, you should review my comment in that context to understand it correctly).

astrange 2y ago

> Imagine Socrates with no Thrasymachus. Nietzsche without Hegel. Wittgenstein without Russell. "Bad" philosophy is always only a future gift to a good one. We should be giddy in our tear downs of other thinkers, not angry and bitter. One thing I notice about philosophy, especially the continental kind, is that it often seems to consist entirely of listing the names of philosophers rather than answering questions. Although continental philosophy also likes writing the question 50 different ways instead of attempting to answer it; the usual claim is that this is because they're asking questions whose answers can't be expressed in language or something like that.

beepbooptheory 2y ago
Just want to say thanks for taking the time to engage with what I said instead of just dancing around it to validate yourself. Because you said something substantial, I am now able to respond to it and, look at that, we have accomplished discourse.

jcelerier 2y ago

> What is at stake for you here? Well, for instance in some circles quoting Latour and showing that you are fully in agreement with his work is a way to really improve your chances to get cold, hard grant money. I know a lot of students who are forced to read Latour through their class and have to take it pretty much as gospel, in Concordia University in Montreal.

beepbooptheory 2y ago
That seems like something you should take up with the department in question. What a scandal!

calf 2y ago

It's funny, my comment said exactly what it said and you construed it all incorrectly. It's as if the more philosophy you people read, the less you can catch your own mistakes. Even people with PhDs (iirc they were a theoretical physicist patronizing somebody else's comment) like the person my comment was originally directed at (if you care, you should review my comment in that context to understand it correctly).