Eliezer, I don’t think your comments would slight sensible philosophers, since many professional philosophers themselves make comparable or more biting criticisms about the discipline (Rorty, Dennett, Unger, now the experimental philosophy movement, et al., going back to the positivists, and, if you like, the Pyrrhonists and atomists). I’m afraid not only have philosophers already written extensively on meta-ethics, but they’ve also generated an extensive literature on anti-philosophy. They’ve been there, done that—too! I think Tyrell McAllister is quite right to say that since philosophy largely consists of folks who can’t agree on the most workable models, your functional interests will tend to be frustrated by philosophy. Like your estimable hero Dick Feynman (who, according to Len Mlodinow, averred that “philosophy is bullshit”), it’d be better for you simply to get on with your tasks at hand, and not expect much help from philosophy—to find the worthwhile stuff you’d have to become one. Maybe you can do that after the FAI builds you an immortal corporeal form.
Eliezer, I don’t think your comments would slight sensible philosophers, since many professional philosophers themselves make comparable or more biting criticisms about the discipline (Rorty, Dennett, Unger, now the experimental philosophy movement, et al., going back to the positivists, and, if you like, the Pyrrhonists and atomists). I’m afraid not only have philosophers already written extensively on meta-ethics, but they’ve also generated an extensive literature on anti-philosophy. They’ve been there, done that—too! I think Tyrell McAllister is quite right to say that since philosophy largely consists of folks who can’t agree on the most workable models, your functional interests will tend to be frustrated by philosophy. Like your estimable hero Dick Feynman (who, according to Len Mlodinow, averred that “philosophy is bullshit”), it’d be better for you simply to get on with your tasks at hand, and not expect much help from philosophy—to find the worthwhile stuff you’d have to become one. Maybe you can do that after the FAI builds you an immortal corporeal form.