But in that case, philosophy should be understood to be the discipline that houses the weirdos. We should then keep a look-out for good ideas coming from philosophy, since those rare gems are often worth quite a lot, but we also shouldn’t panic when the discipline looks like it’s run by a bunch of weirdos. In fact, I think this is pretty close to being exactly what contemporary philosophy actually is as a discipline.
I particularly agree with this part. The project of regimenting philosophy to conform to someone’s ideas of correctness or meaningfullness or worth isn’t just objectionably illiberal, although it is, it is counterporductive, because you
need some disciple that houses the weirdos. If none of them do, then those leftfield ideas are going to slip
through the cracks.
Excellent post overall.
I particularly agree with this part. The project of regimenting philosophy to conform to someone’s ideas of correctness or meaningfullness or worth isn’t just objectionably illiberal, although it is, it is counterporductive, because you need some disciple that houses the weirdos. If none of them do, then those leftfield ideas are going to slip through the cracks.