I don’t mind that approach, as long as philosophy is treated as art.
But we have an even poorer comparison there. Works of philosophy are presented, reviewed, and discussed as arguments, not as aesthetic artifacts. I know of no philosophers who think the aesthetics of an argument is anything but a secondary consideration, and no part of philosophical training looks like the training an author of novels or poet might get. Philosophers are expected to be clear and engaging, but not artists. I’d say it has about as much in common with art as does physics or mathematics.
With physics, we could be having a conversation about some theory or experiment, but we wouldn’t be doing physics. But just having this conversation about philosophy is itself philosophy. We’re doing philosophy, right now, in exactly the same sense professionals do. And one of the things we’re doing is arguing about what the right thing to think is, and we’re holding ourselves to standards of rationality. So there it looks a little bit like science. On the other hand, neither of us is deploying any fixed method, and we’re not trying work out the implications of a specific theory of intellectual activity we both accept. So there it doesn’t seem like a science. What is it that we’re doing, and how are we doing it?
Well, I don’t have a low opinion of my chosen profession: I’m very happy with what I do. But I do have a low opinion of some philosophers and some philosophical work, along with a high opinion of some others.
My original reply was just intended to point out that a) the analytic/continental divide is no longer a significant part of the academic philosophical world, and b) that you don’t have good reasons to compare philosophy to an academic science (or to a form of art).
As to how we should think of philosophy, I think we have an easy way to approach the question: how do you think about what you’re doing right now? Do you take yourself to be producing a work of art? Do you take yourself to be engaging in scientific theorizing or experiment of some kind? What methods are you applying? What standards are you holding yourself to?
I’m asking these questions in seriousness, not as a rhetorical move. I want to know your answers. I don’t think I’m presently engaged in either science or art. I consider myself held to standards of honesty and sincerity, and to producing good and convincing arguments. I think that if what I’m doing right now has no relation to the truth, then what I’m doing is in vain. I also don’t think I have an answer to the question ‘what is philosophy and how should it be treated?’
how do you think about what you’re doing right now? Do you take yourself to be producing a work of art? Do you take yourself to be engaging in scientific theorizing or experiment of some kind? What methods are you applying? What standards are you holding yourself to?
Well, right now I’m writing some rather routine software I am paid to write, and I try to do a decent job, but it is by no means art or science, though I do learn a thing or two now and then. When I was doing actual research (calculations and simulations in General Relativity), it was no art, either, but it did produce some non-negligible results, though nothing earth-shuttering. Unfortunately, it was not quite at the level of an experimentally falsifiable model, which would be a fair standard for me.
Well, right now I’m writing some rather routine software I am paid to write, and I try to do a decent job, but it is by no means art or science, though I do learn a thing or two now and then.
Ah, I’m sorry, I was unclear. I mean ‘right now’ as in ‘the activity of having a conversation with me’ or at any rate ‘the activity of having conversations roughly of this kind’.
But we have an even poorer comparison there. Works of philosophy are presented, reviewed, and discussed as arguments, not as aesthetic artifacts. I know of no philosophers who think the aesthetics of an argument is anything but a secondary consideration, and no part of philosophical training looks like the training an author of novels or poet might get. Philosophers are expected to be clear and engaging, but not artists. I’d say it has about as much in common with art as does physics or mathematics.
With physics, we could be having a conversation about some theory or experiment, but we wouldn’t be doing physics. But just having this conversation about philosophy is itself philosophy. We’re doing philosophy, right now, in exactly the same sense professionals do. And one of the things we’re doing is arguing about what the right thing to think is, and we’re holding ourselves to standards of rationality. So there it looks a little bit like science. On the other hand, neither of us is deploying any fixed method, and we’re not trying work out the implications of a specific theory of intellectual activity we both accept. So there it doesn’t seem like a science. What is it that we’re doing, and how are we doing it?
So, does this mean that you agree with my assessment of philosophy in the original comment (currently downvoted to −10)?
Well, I don’t have a low opinion of my chosen profession: I’m very happy with what I do. But I do have a low opinion of some philosophers and some philosophical work, along with a high opinion of some others.
My original reply was just intended to point out that a) the analytic/continental divide is no longer a significant part of the academic philosophical world, and b) that you don’t have good reasons to compare philosophy to an academic science (or to a form of art).
As to how we should think of philosophy, I think we have an easy way to approach the question: how do you think about what you’re doing right now? Do you take yourself to be producing a work of art? Do you take yourself to be engaging in scientific theorizing or experiment of some kind? What methods are you applying? What standards are you holding yourself to?
I’m asking these questions in seriousness, not as a rhetorical move. I want to know your answers. I don’t think I’m presently engaged in either science or art. I consider myself held to standards of honesty and sincerity, and to producing good and convincing arguments. I think that if what I’m doing right now has no relation to the truth, then what I’m doing is in vain. I also don’t think I have an answer to the question ‘what is philosophy and how should it be treated?’
Well, right now I’m writing some rather routine software I am paid to write, and I try to do a decent job, but it is by no means art or science, though I do learn a thing or two now and then. When I was doing actual research (calculations and simulations in General Relativity), it was no art, either, but it did produce some non-negligible results, though nothing earth-shuttering. Unfortunately, it was not quite at the level of an experimentally falsifiable model, which would be a fair standard for me.
Ah, I’m sorry, I was unclear. I mean ‘right now’ as in ‘the activity of having a conversation with me’ or at any rate ‘the activity of having conversations roughly of this kind’.