Category: Metaphilosophy
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A Question for Benson Mates
According to Benson Mates (1919-2009), all the major problems of philosophy are "insoluble though intelligible." (Skeptical Essays, U. of Chicago Press, 1981, p. 13) If true, this would explain why the problems of philosophy have not been solved. But "the rational minds among us are not inclined to give up the struggle, while the rest…
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Is This a Joke?
"Principles of Non-Philosophy is a treatise on the method, axioms and objectives of non-philosophy and represents François Laruelle's mature philosophy." That sounds like a joke. Maybe it is. With Continental bullshitters you never know. Here. Via Andrew Sullivan. HT: Dave Lull. I am surprised that NDPR published a review of this book, and an uncritical…
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Philosophy and Politics: Frege, Heidegger and Others
Worth repeating from an old post: Hate speech? That's a term leftists use for speech they don't like. No one in his right mind could see Heidegger's magnum opus, Sein und Zeit (Being and Time), published in 1927, as anything close to hate speech. The claim that it is is beneath refutation. Nor can his…
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Fly Bottle Blues
Ludwig Wittgenstein, PI 309: Was ist dein Ziel in der Philosophie? Der Fliege den Ausweg aus dem Fliegenglas zeigen. What is your goal in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly glass. Why does the bug need to be shown the way out? Pop the cork and he's gone. Why did…
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Bad Philosophy in Scientific American: Why Life Does Not Really Exist!
We humans naturally philosophize. But we don't naturally philosophize well. So when science journalists and scientists try their hands at it they often make a mess of it. (See my Scientism category for plenty of examples.) This is why there is need of the institutionalized discipline of philosophy one of whose chief offices is the…
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Arguments, Testicles, and Inside Knowledge
T. L. e-mails, Here’s fodder for a follow-up MP post, if you care to pursue it. I do not endorse the following objection, but I wonder how you’d reply. In “David Lewis on Religion” you say: "To be a good philosopher of X one ought to know both philosophy and X from the inside, by…
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The Dictionary Definition of Lying Again: Hanson’s Counterexample
I dedicate this, and all subsequent posts on lying and the several senses of 'is,' to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who, by their brazen mendacity, have inadvertently fueled the fires of logico-linguistic inquiry. ……….. Tony Hanson e-mails and I comment in blue: I hope things are well for you. Sorry for the haste of…
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Camille Paglia on Philosophy and Women in Philosophy
Here: The term "female philosopher" doesn't even make sense to me. Simone de Beauvoir was a thinker rather than a philosopher. A philosopher for me is someone who is removed from everyday concerns and manipulates terms and concepts like counters on a grid or chessboard. Both Simone de Beauvoir and Ayn Rand, another favourite of…
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Ontic Versus Alterity Theism
There is a problem that has occupied me on and off for years. Mikael Stenmark's Prague paper, "Competing Conceptions of God: The Personal God versus the God beyond Being" got me thinking about it again. What follows, however, is not intended as commentary on Stenmark's paper. One way into the problem as I conceive it…
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Annoying Habits of Some Philosophers
Herewith, a partial catalog of some habits that I at least find annoying. 1. Calling an opposing view with an impressive pedigree a 'mistake' as if the opposing view can be simply dismissed as resting on some elementary blunder. Here is an example by a distinguished contemporary: . . . it is possible to distinguish between the being…
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Popular Conceptions and Misconceptions of Philosophy
If you are a philosopher or a student of philosophy, how do you respond when someone asks what you do or study? What sorts of misconceptions about philosophy and other disciplines have you encountered? Combox open! 1. When I was a graduate student I would sometimes deflect the question by saying 'mathematics.' But then one…
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Against Antony Flew on Progress in Philosophy
Antony Flew, There is a God, pp. 40-41 (quoted from Appeared-to-Blogly): I came to see, as I would write in An Introduction to Western Philosophy, that there can be progress in philosophy despite the general absence of consensus. The lack of consensus in philosophy is not an independently sufficient demonstration that the subject does not make…
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Theology Wagging the Ontological Dog?
Dennis M. writes, On Ockham and supposita: A little perplexity at the end, when you write that “[w]hat is curious here is how very specific theological doctrines are allowed to drive the general ontology.” One man’s modus ponens is another’s modus tollens, I suppose, but if Ockham is trying to maintain theological orthodoxy it doesn’t…
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A Place for Polemics in Political Philosophy?
The proprietor of After Aristotle agrees with me that polemics has no place in philosophy. But he has a question for me: "Do his [my] statements about philosophy apply also to political philosophy?" My answer is that if polemics has no legitimate place in philosophy, then it follows that it has no legitimate place in…
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Philosophy, Debate, and Dialog: Can Philosophy Be Debated?
Can philosophy be debated? In a loose sense, yes, but not in a strict sense. I say that if debate is occurring in a certain place, then no philosophy is occurring in that place. Philosophy is not a matter of debate. That is a nonnegotiable point with me. So I won't debate it, nor can…