I’m reminded of when someone once told me there was no evidence against Mormonism, and I remain dumbfounded that anyone would expect such a statement to increase support for their position. It’s incredibly rare to encounter a controversy so one-sided that you can’t find any evidence for the other side, but it’s sadly common to find opinionated people who are either ignorant of or unreasonably dismissive of all evidence contrary to those opinions.
I don’t know where you are going with that. There is abundant evidence that studying X makes you better at X for most values of X, and someone who thinks there is an exception for some specific X, needs to provide evidence for the somewhat extraordinary claim.
I’m reminded of when someone once told me there was no evidence against Mormonism, and I remain dumbfounded that anyone would expect such a statement to increase support for their position. It’s incredibly rare to encounter a controversy so one-sided that you can’t find any evidence for the other side, but it’s sadly common to find opinionated people who are either ignorant of or unreasonably dismissive of all evidence contrary to those opinions.
The special irony in this case is that even the reductio ad absurdum “There is no progress in philosophy” is itself a philosophically defensible claim.
I don’t know where you are going with that. There is abundant evidence that studying X makes you better at X for most values of X, and someone who thinks there is an exception for some specific X, needs to provide evidence for the somewhat extraordinary claim.