RE: Generally speaking, is philosophy a worthwhile subject of study?
February 24, 2022 at 11:47 am
(This post was last modified: February 24, 2022 at 11:50 am by The Grand Nudger.)
You misunderstand. I'm not a religious naturalist, Crosby is - but even so, the kind of philosophy he does doesn't seem to fit the bad set, defined broadly by objections in this thread.
I'm also not super duper committed to pragmatism, to the ideal of and preference for utility - but Crosby is..and, additionally, it's clear that philosophy has a great many practical applications and that all of us have been made aware of or complicit in some philosophy, as well as doing it ourselves in whatever respect we may find useful.
I don't think that your summary (in post 21) is entirely off base. It's certainly true that philosophy can be tedious and can lack or lose whatever practical application it may have once had. I suspect that if people think philosophy is plato, or aristotle, or divine command theory, or any of the boring shit we were made to do bare minimum reports on in high school (and later) then it would hit home, and hit hard. We didn't stop doing philosophy, though, and contemporary philosophy is very very different from those classical examples.
Today, for example, we have people using scientific testing protocols to see whether they can quantify moral apprehensions across different populations, wondering whether any relationships or outcomes can be predicted...and, if so, how that data could help us to better understand ourselves or organize our societies. (turns out they can be, btw)
I'm also not super duper committed to pragmatism, to the ideal of and preference for utility - but Crosby is..and, additionally, it's clear that philosophy has a great many practical applications and that all of us have been made aware of or complicit in some philosophy, as well as doing it ourselves in whatever respect we may find useful.
I don't think that your summary (in post 21) is entirely off base. It's certainly true that philosophy can be tedious and can lack or lose whatever practical application it may have once had. I suspect that if people think philosophy is plato, or aristotle, or divine command theory, or any of the boring shit we were made to do bare minimum reports on in high school (and later) then it would hit home, and hit hard. We didn't stop doing philosophy, though, and contemporary philosophy is very very different from those classical examples.
Today, for example, we have people using scientific testing protocols to see whether they can quantify moral apprehensions across different populations, wondering whether any relationships or outcomes can be predicted...and, if so, how that data could help us to better understand ourselves or organize our societies. (turns out they can be, btw)
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