Blowhard, Esq. writes:
“The degeneration of philosophical schools in its turn is the consequence of the mistaken belief that one can philosophize without having been compelled to philosophize by problems outside philosophy….Genuine philosophical problems are always rooted outside philosophy and they die if these roots decay….These roots are easily forgotten by philosophers who ‘study’ philosophy instead of being forced into philosophy by the pressure of nonphilosophical problems.” — Karl Popper
Old Karl knew what he was talking about.
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Philosophy is a tool…only the utilitarians would buy that.
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A philosopher friend, the late Denis Dutton, said that Wittgenstein finished philosophy (I’m wildly paraphrasing what he said, but that was the gist). His response was to go into the philosophy of aesthetics using evolutionary biology because he was then bringing philosophy back into the world and away from pointless classroom debates. I wonder what you think of his approach?
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>I wonder what you think of his approach?
Wittgenstein is someone I had in mind when I read this quote. I’m not *that* familiar with his work, but he seemed to be more interested in language games than anything, right? (“If you do know that ‘here is one hand,’ we’ll grant you all the rest.”)
“Bringing philosophy back into the world” is a pretty good way of describing this blog. Well, philosophy and a lot of creative whining.
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Whining FTW.
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