People Who Know Nothing About Philosophy
Talking About Philosophy
Some Guy Freddie Edition

Man, there's nothing I love more than some guy who knows nothing about philosophy talking about philosophy as if he knows about it. Man, that is so awesome. And getting a link to Andrew Sullivan for it, to boot! He seems to be responding to that guy Sam Harris, one of the new pop atheists, who also doesn't seem to know much. I mean, I think everybody should want to talk about philosophy, and so, of course, I don't expect everybody who talks about it to have a degree in philosophy.

But these guys, they act as if they're breaking new ground when they're really having an undergraduate-ish discussion about the matter. See, there's about 2500 years of fairly interesting thought about these matters. You're not breaking new ground. You're not even really part of the discussion.

Here's a hint: anyone who suggests that you read Barbara Herrnstein-Smith, just navigate away. BHS is not a serious thinker, and her amateur pronouncements about philosophy are laughably laughable.

I'm not even going to go to the trouble of refuting this dude's points. Unless I start feeling extremely bored and cantankerous tomorrow...