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Your prejudice is showing. Philosophy is about knowing and reasoning about reality. There are charlatans who try to pass off their weak ideas through obfuscat
by knowtheory 13y ago
Your prejudice is showing. Philosophy is about knowing and reasoning about reality. There are charlatans who try to pass off their weak ideas through obfuscation, but there is a core to the endeavor of philosophy, and good philosophers out there making noteworthy observations about reality.
- RivieraKid 13y agoWell, from my experience, the problem with most of philosophy is not being able to get to the core. Significant part of philosophy is just arguing what is the meaning of some word or what is the correct label for some idea (ie. it's about matching meanings with words). Another thing that bugs me is that many psychological and sociological problems are considered to be philosophical problems.
- Herring 13y agoI think if you're running experiments you're called a scientist. Talking about has limited utility.
- knowtheory 13y agoIt's sad that more people don't study the philosophy and sociology of Science, especially people in engineering and the sciences. Scientists make ontological and metaphysical claims about the nature of the universe, and unless they avail themselves of the philosophy of science there are a lot of arguments that one can't defend against.. There are a lot of fundamentalists who avail themselves of Thomas Kuhn's argument that scientific progress is entirely just cultural consensus amongst scientists, and has no additional metaphysical reality. Fighting off that argument is squarely in the philosophy of science, as is being able to articulate what it means to observe, theorize about, and know reality.
- Herring 13y agoI don't know if it's sad really. I guess it depends what your priorities are. There's fighting off philosophical arguments, and there's getting things done. Too much emphasis on either one reduces your ability to do the other.
- knowtheory 13y agoFighting off philosophical arguments is a fundamental part of politics and convincing other people that you are right. You're also right that there's only so much time in the day, but it depends on who you have to go through to get stuff done. Who do you need money, or approval from.
- Herring 13y agoAh, I see your point. You're right. If it's studying philosophy to convince other people then I'm in.