Comment by qcnguy
5 days ago
Which group of people giving modern training in philosophy should we judge the field by? If they can't use it correctly in such a basic case then who can?
5 days ago
Which group of people giving modern training in philosophy should we judge the field by? If they can't use it correctly in such a basic case then who can?
Did the Duke philosophy teachers claim they were using philosophy to determine if someone was raped?
And did all the philosophers at all the other colleges convene and announce they were also using philosophy to determine if someone was raped?
> Did the Duke philosophy teachers claim they were using philosophy to determine if someone was raped?
I don't think that matters very much. If there's a strong enough correlation between being a reactive idiot and the department you're in, it makes a bad case for enrolling in that realm of study for educational motives. It's especially bad when the realm of study is directly focused on knowledge, ethics, and logic.
Note the "if" though, I haven't evaluated the parent's claims. I'm just saying it doesn't matter if they said they used philosophy. It reflects on philosophy as a study, at least the style they do there.
How much that affects other colleges is iffier, but it's not zero.
One week ago, if I asked you "how do we determine if modern philosophy is useful?"
Would you have pondered for a little while, then responded, "Find out how many philosophers commented on the Duke rape case of 2006 and what their opinions were, then we'll know."
2 replies →
> Which group of people giving modern training in philosophy should we judge the field by?
... all of them? Or rather, the body as a whole. Pointing at one set of faculty at one university 20 years ago and using that as the sole point to say "modern philosophy doesn't seem that useful", is just not useful.