Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Metaphilosophy

  • Seneca and the Consolations of Chess and Philosophy

    A correspondent reminds me of the following passage from Seneca's De Tranquillitate XIV, 6-7, tr. Basore: Will you believe that Canus spent the ten intervening days before his execution in no anxiety of any sort? What the man said, what he did, how tranquil he was, passes all credence. He was playing chess when the…

  • Philosophy is Dialectical and Aporetic

    Gustav Bergmann, Meaning and Existence (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959, p. vii): Philosophy is dialectical. This means, among other things, that critical examination of the positions he rejects is an important part of a philosopher's argument for the position he adopts. I would add that philosophy is also aporetic. The positions a philosopher affirms…

  • Philosophical Vulgarity

    Is it not vulgarity in a philosopher to think that he will settle the ultimate questions in short order? One thinks of the Tractarian Wittgenstein and of Ayn Rand. Connected with this is the philistinism of certain forms of clarity such as that of the logical positivist. One recalls Rudolf Carnap's pathetic refutation of Heidegger.…

  • Notes on Philosophical Terminology and its Fluidity

    The Fact of Terminological Fluidity If Peter and Bill are talking philosophy, the first thing that has to occur, if there is is to be any forward movement, is that the interlocutors must pin each other down terminology-wise. Each has to come to understand how the other is using his terms. It is notorious that key…

  • Can Philosophy be Taught?

    In one sense a philosophy is a set of conclusions, systematically set forth, on ultimate matters. To appreciate the conclusions, however, one must appreciate the arguments and counterarguments the sifting of which first led the philosopher to the conclusions. But to understand the arguments and counterarguments one must understand the issues and problems that they…

  • Contra Negantem Prima Principia Non Esse Disputandum

    "One should not dispute with those who deny first principles." I found this Latin tag in Luther's Tischreden (Table Talks) in a section entitled Unnütze Fragen (Useless Questions), Weimarer Ausgabe, III, 2844. He applied it to those who deny the authority of the Bible. I agree with the maxim but I find that the good…

  • On Wasting Time With Philosophy (And a Jab at Pascal)

    People talk glibly about wasting time on this, that, and the other thing — but without reflecting on what it is to waste time. People think they know which activities are time-wasters, philosophy for example. But to know what wastes time, one would have to know what is a good, a non-wasteful, use of time.…

  • Philosophy, Religion, and the Philosophy of Religion: Four Theses

    T1. The primary purpose of the philosophy of religion is neither to debunk nor defend religion. Its main aim is neither dismissive in the manner of Dawkins, Dennett, and Co., nor is it apologetic or ancillary in the sense of the Medieval Philosophia ancilla theologiae, "Philosophy is the handmaiden of theology." The central task of…

  • Is There Progress in Philosophy?

    There are at least two affirmative answers to this question. (There are actually more than two affirmative answers, but brevity is the soul of blog.) 1. Yes, there is progress in philosophy; it is just that when philosophy makes progress it is no longer called philosophy. Time was, when all rational inquiry was called philosophy.…

  • Retortion and Performative Inconsistency Once Again

    This post continues my meditations on the probative reach of retortion.  See the category Retortion for more on this intriguing topic. 1. If a number of us are sitting silently in a room, I cannot say 'We are silent' without in some sense contradicting myself.  In what sense, exactly?  In the performative sense.  Were I…

  • The Reach of Retortion

    Tony Flood e-mails: Bill, when you distinguish retorsive arguments that work from those that don't, I'm not clear about what you mean by "working." You haven't said that some retorsive arguments are fallacies, but if they're not, then what is their defect?  A "performative contradiction," e.g., "I cannot write a sentence in English," may not…

  • Philosophy as Hobby, as Career, as Vocation

    An e-mail from a few years back with no name attached: Leiter fancies himself a gatekeeper to the realm of academic philosophy. You gotta love the professional gossip that seeps through his blog – Ned Block got an offer from Harvard but turned it down, here's the latest coming out of the Eastern APA, or…

  • Morris Lazerowitz on Philosophy and Propositions

    Immersed as I am these days in a metaphilosophical project, I once again pull Lazerowitz's Philosophy and Illusion (Humanities Press, 1968) from the shelf.  Morris Lazerowitz (1907-1987) may not be much read these days, but his ideas remain provocative and worth considering, despite the fact that they are now taken seriously by few, if any.  But if he is…

  • Deus Ex Machina: Leibniz Contra Malebranche

    I have been searching the 'Net and various databases such as JSTOR without success for a good article on deus ex machina objections in philosophy.  What exactly is a deus ex machina (DEM)?  When one taxes a theory or an explanatory posit with DEM, what exactly is one alleging?  How does a DEM differ from a legitimate…

  • The Dictionary Fallacy

    What I will call the Dictionary Fallacy is the fallacy of thinking that certain philosophical questions can be answered by consulting dictionaries.  The philosophical questions I have in mind are those of the form What is X? or What is the nature of X?  High on the list:  What is justice?  Knowledge? Existence?  Goodness?  But…