Is philosophy dead?

[bennyboy]

I'm not saying that there aren't any pompous assholes promotimg bs in theoretical physics, but it is very rare to have actual know-nothings achieve anything that gets attention in the community, because to say anything that is accepted by your peers even as a proposition, you have to do the math, and the math is hard. People could be rightfully accused of propagatinge bullshit positions on speculative topics, but they still have to have a formidable technical foundation to say these things in the first place. Complete charlatans are therefore usually found out or at least marginalized quickly.

That's right to a degree, I'd say. You can't just grab a Starbucks coffee and put an iPad in your man-satchel and get a physics degree. However, it seems to me that much of theoretical physics is as wishy-thinking as the worst of philosophy. Or it's just philosophy with some math to it.