There Is No Progress in Philosophy will be an idea familiar to us all; my particular text is taken from an article published in 2011 but brought to my attention by Twatter. And since I haven't ranted about the evils of philosophy for a while now, and nothing much else seems to be happening, I thought I would indulge myself.Part of the answer is that of course there’s progress in philosophy, we just stop calling those topics that make progress “philosophy”. Although that isn't really progress in philosophy: that is progress in removing things from philosophy - cosmology, physics, most obviously - as they become science. In the same sense we could say there is progress in religion. As time goes by, philosophy is left with all the stuff that people can't agree on, whereas science is what works, bitches.
Part of the answer is that there is genuine progress, but most philosophers aren't interested; as Popper wistfully notes the problem of induction is solved. But nothing seems less wanted than a simple solution to an age-old philosophical problem. Hazlitt on morality provides another example; that he was an economist and therefore from out of field doesn't help. Professional philosophy is about publication count and tenure and talking, not about solving problems; no-one hires a philosopher to actually solve problems.
But a lot of the answer is that much of philosophy is not grounded in reality, unlike science, and so there is no final arbiter. So people are free to disagree, and retreat behind screens of words.
2 comments:
I haven't read anything philosophical in the past couple of decades that was in any way better than, for example, Bertrand Russell. I think it's lazy to say that science grabs more thought sectors away from philosophy. I just don't think the same caliber of brains turn their thoughts to matters philosophical.
I'm not sure that expecting it to be "better" than Russell is right. Popper isn't "better", but he provides solutions to problems that Russell does not. That said, I've only read Russell's "pop" stuff - e.g. Russell on Rouseau and the Romantics and don't really know how to judge his original stuff.
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