No… it’s just correct. Philosophy is very good at figuring out where we’ve gone wrong, or figuring out how to do things better next time. But in the present, philosophers are very good at getting fired and executed when they’re against the authority. (cf Nazi Germany, or France when Aristotle went temporarily out of fashion in the Church)
“Philosophy triumphs easily over past and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.”
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
I’ve never quite understood that quote; is Rochefoucauld being very sarcastic about the (lack of) use of philosophy, or is he saying something else?
Observing that we nobly analyse distant things, and in the present do whatever the hell we want.
No… it’s just correct. Philosophy is very good at figuring out where we’ve gone wrong, or figuring out how to do things better next time. But in the present, philosophers are very good at getting fired and executed when they’re against the authority. (cf Nazi Germany, or France when Aristotle went temporarily out of fashion in the Church)
My guess is that most philosophers in those situations were good at accommodating the powers that be and did not get fired and/or executed.