Philosophy quote: Nagel on Analytic Philosophy 1 Oct 20114 Oct 2011 In 1935, Ernest Nagel spent a year traveling around European philosophy departments, and he reported his observations on what he called the new “analytic philosophy” in the Journal of Philosophy. I was particularly taken by his programmatic description: the men with whom I have talked are impatient with philosophic systems built in the traditionally grand manner. Their pre-occupation is with philosophy as analysis; they take for granted a body of authentic knowledge acquired by the special sciences, and are concerned not with adding to it in the way research in these sciences adds to it, but with clarifying its meaning and implications. Philosophy for these men holds out no promise of settling questions which only the empirical sciences are competent to settle; nor does it assume the function of legislating what sort of things it is permissible or possible for the empirical sciences to investigate. Those who seek in philosophy a substitute for religion or a key to social salvation will not find it here. Found via NewAPPS Metaphysics Philosophy Quotes
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Why eat meat? 6 May 20126 May 2012 A while back, the New York Times held a blog competition on justifications for eating meat, in 600 words or less. I submitted mine, but I bet it didn’t get far up the selection tree, as the winner is effectively a popular piece rather than a philosophical justification, and so… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Rise of the Planet of the Moralists 3: clades and grades 20 Oct 201122 Jun 2018 Rise of the Planet of the Moralists Series1: Introduction2: Chains and Trees 3: Clades and grades4: Predicting traits5: Social dominance and power Note: My researchers readers have inundated provided me with all kinds of interesting references (hi Jeb and Jocelyn). One that is particularly interesting is this book. It appears… Read More
Evolution Did humans lose dominance? 13 May 2011 An extensive critical review has just been published online in advance of publication for Biology and Philosophy. The title is “Evolution and the loss of hierarchies: Dubreuil’s Human evolution and the origin of hierarchies: the state of nature” by Catherine Driscoll. I haven’t read Benoit Dubreuil’s book. It looks from… Read More
Interesting. The shift to the Analytic philosophy of today is subtle but important: we no longer clarify the thoughts of scientists, but we actually become scientists. This, apparently, is due to Quine. Later on, in Nagel’s 1954 APA address, he gave a definition of “naturalism” which might interest you: Two theses seem to me central to naturalism as I conceive it. The first is the existential and causal primacy of organized matter in the executive order of nature. This is the assumption that the occurrence of events, qualities and processes, and the characteristic behaviors of various individuals, are contingent on the organization of spatio-temporally located bodies, whose internal structures and external relations determine and limit the appearance and disappearance of everything that happens… However, Naturalism does not maintain that only what is material exists… The second major contention of naturalism is that the manifest plurality and variety of things, of their qualities and their functions, are an irreducible feature of the cosmos, not a deceptive appearance cloaking some more homogeneous “ultimate reality” or trans-empirical substance, and that the sequential orders in which events occur or the manifold relations of dependence in which things exist are contingent connections, not the embodiments of a fixed and unified pattern of logically necessary links. (1954, 8-9)
Nick Smyth: Interesting.The shift to the Analytic philosophy of today is subtle but important… In Nagel’s 1954 APA address: … not a deceptive appearance cloaking some more homogeneous “ultimate reality” or trans-empirical substance… (1954, 8-9) Both theses are appropriate and extant but the deceptive appearance does cloak. Improvements can be made by mincing further. Philosophy excels at Meta™ reiterated Notwithstanding the hype about splitting hairs philosophy goes numb whence sub “ing” towards proto sub and pre. The asymmetry is peculiar given the fierce aptitude with details. Failure to reduce the irreducible is ironic and revealing ( and very difficult and confusing too). Perhaps the indicated asymmetry explains ‘all’.