Is Philosophy a Science?
No.
This, by Colin McGinn, is obviously a joke.
You can't tell because it's not very funny.
Here's the problem. The problem is that many people currently mistakenly think that all and only science is interesting, systematic, difficult, rigorous, and aims at the truth via careful reasoning. Consequently, one often meets complete dullards who nevertheless have high opinions of themselves on account of being scientists...or "scientists." If you're outside of the sciences, you'll also has to deal with the fact that many people will think that what you do is pointless, intellectually masturbatory nonsense that basically anybody could do. It's fairly common to meet people who think that they're scientists because they work in IT. Or who think that the dimmest scientists is intellectually superior to the most brilliant historian. Or whatever. I can't tell you how many people I've met who were too dumb to have conversations with who, nevertheless, looked down on me because I'm in philosophy.
I find it kind of funny but, hey, I guess not every body does.
The solution--if a solution is even wanted--is, of course, not to pretend that philosophy is an empirical science. Down that road lies, e.g., "experimental philosophy" and related silliness. The solution is to recognize that "science" is not synonymous with "difficult and intellectually respectable."
McGinn may be genuinely concerned that philosophy doesn't get much respect...but it remains an open question how much respect it deserves. I've known philosophers who were ridiculously brilliant. I've also known a lot who weren't anything special. As a discipline, philosophy ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. We've got Aristotle. We've also got Feyerabend. (That Zizek fellow doesn't count. He's really some kind of literary theorist or something. We suck, but we don't suck that bad.)
And, besides, even if non-philosophers have an exceptionally low opinion of philosophers, I'll be that the opinions philosophers have of themselves balance those out pretty well...
No.
This, by Colin McGinn, is obviously a joke.
You can't tell because it's not very funny.
Here's the problem. The problem is that many people currently mistakenly think that all and only science is interesting, systematic, difficult, rigorous, and aims at the truth via careful reasoning. Consequently, one often meets complete dullards who nevertheless have high opinions of themselves on account of being scientists...or "scientists." If you're outside of the sciences, you'll also has to deal with the fact that many people will think that what you do is pointless, intellectually masturbatory nonsense that basically anybody could do. It's fairly common to meet people who think that they're scientists because they work in IT. Or who think that the dimmest scientists is intellectually superior to the most brilliant historian. Or whatever. I can't tell you how many people I've met who were too dumb to have conversations with who, nevertheless, looked down on me because I'm in philosophy.
I find it kind of funny but, hey, I guess not every body does.
The solution--if a solution is even wanted--is, of course, not to pretend that philosophy is an empirical science. Down that road lies, e.g., "experimental philosophy" and related silliness. The solution is to recognize that "science" is not synonymous with "difficult and intellectually respectable."
McGinn may be genuinely concerned that philosophy doesn't get much respect...but it remains an open question how much respect it deserves. I've known philosophers who were ridiculously brilliant. I've also known a lot who weren't anything special. As a discipline, philosophy ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. We've got Aristotle. We've also got Feyerabend. (That Zizek fellow doesn't count. He's really some kind of literary theorist or something. We suck, but we don't suck that bad.)
And, besides, even if non-philosophers have an exceptionally low opinion of philosophers, I'll be that the opinions philosophers have of themselves balance those out pretty well...
posted by Winston Smith at
8:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home