Category: Metaphilosophy
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Has Any Philosophical Problem Been Solved? The case of psychologism in logic.
For Cyrus …………… A reader is skeptical of my solubility skepticism. He adduces the problem of psychologism in logic which, he suggests, has been definitively settled in favor of the anti-psychologizers. Here, then, is a problem that supposedly has been solved. There is progress in philosophy after all. My reader is joined by Robert Spaemann…
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Kleingeld meine Herren, Kleingeld!
Edmund Husserl used to say that to his seminarians to keep them careful and wissenschaftlich and away from assertions of the high-flying and sweeping sort. "Small change, gentlemen, small change!" Unfortunately, the philosophical small change doesn't add up. Specialization, no matter how narrow and protracted, no matter how carefully pursued, fails to put us on…
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Clarity and Content in Philosophy: Two Principles of Method
A commenter enunciates two principles: 1) The guiding principle of analytic philosophy – not always observed – is that the author has a duty to be maximally clear. 2) The guiding principle of Continental philosophy – always strictly observed – is that the reader has a maximal duty to understand. Here are my principles: A)…
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Edith Stein: Faith, Reason, and Method: Theocentric or Egocentric?
August 9th is the feast day of St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross in the Catholic liturgy. She is better known to philosophers as Edith Stein (1891-1942), brilliant Jewish student of and assistant to Edmund Husserl, philosopher, Roman Catholic convert, Carmelite nun, victim of the Holocaust at Auschwitz, and saint of the Roman Catholic Church.…
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Among the Riddles of Existence
Among the riddles of existence are the riddles that are artifacts of the attempts of thinkers to unravel the riddle of existence. F. H. Bradley got his problems from the world. G. E. Moore got his problems from what F. H. Bradley said about the world.
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In a Philosophical Discussion . . .
. . . three's a crowd and four's a cross-conversation. One-on-one, back-and-forth, defining and refining, pursuing the point, focusing like a laser, driven by eros for truth but free of polemos under the aegis of philia. But also under the aegis of Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. And with no illusions about achieving agreement.…
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Moving from Religion to Philosophy: A Typology of Motives
People come to philosophy from various 'places.' Some come from religion, others from mathematics and the natural sciences, still others from literature and the arts. There are other termini a quis as well. In this post I am concerned only with the move from religion to philosophy. What are the main types of reasons for those who are…
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Two Ways into Philosophy
Among the riddles of existence are the artifacts of the attempts of thinkers to unravel the riddle of existence. What started G. E. Moore philosophizing was not so much the world as the puzzling things people such as F. H. Bradley said about it. That too is a way into philosophy, if an inauthentic one.…
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Why a Philosopher Should Meditate and Why it is Difficult for a Philosopher to Meditate
If a philosopher seeks the ultimate truth about the ultimate matters, then he should do so by all available routes. Qua philosopher he operates in the aether of abstract thought, on the plane of discursive reason, but he cannot consistently with his calling ignore other avenues of advance. It is after all the truth that…
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On Continental Philosophy: Response to a German Reader
This is an edited re-post (re-entry?) from 21 February 2017 to satisfy current interest. Against my better judgment, I am allowing comments. …………………………. The following from a German sociologist (my comments are in blue): Perhaps you know the old joke: Analytic philosophers think that continental philosophy is not sufficiently clear; continental philosophers think that analytic philosophy is…
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Is Philosophy Justified in a Time of Crisis?
The country is unraveling, and you sit in your ivory tower pondering arcane questions about time and existence? How is that a justifiable use of your time, energy, and brain power? Here is my answer. Or rather one of them. There have always been crises. Human history is just one crisis after another. The 20th…
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How Could God be Justice itself?
David Gudeman writes; I reply: George Berkeley was the first author who really shook my confidence in my existing world view. Before I read Berkeley, I had a Mr. Johnson-style contempt of physical idealism; after reading Berkeley, I realized that I had been naive–not because Berkeley was necessarily right, but because once I suppressed…
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The Most Boring Philosophers
Nowadays philosophy so absorbs me in all its branches and movements that I find no philosopher boring. Indeed, no subject is boring except to the bored who make it so. Dry texts, like dry wines, are often delightfully subtle and simply require an educable and educated palate. Although no philosophers now bore me, here is…
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A Reader Poses a Question about the Extent of My Solubility Skepticism
M.M. writes, I understand that your method is aporetic – you argue that the great problems of philosophy are genuine problems but also insoluble, at least by us here below. [. . .] My question is: do you think that — even if all positions in some metaphysical disputes have their problems —…
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Musing and Using
"Your problems are artifacts of musing about language. Stop musing and stick to using." Could be, Ludwig, but I doubt it.