Survival of the Fittest Contemporary Philosophers (1920 CE +)
For a general description of this series, see the main page for the survival of the fittest philosophers.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970 CE) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, socialist, pacifist, and social critic. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy and is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians.
Survives
For most of his adult life Russell maintained that religion is little more than superstition, and despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed religion and the religious outlook (he considered communism and other systematic ideologies to be forms of religion) serve to impede knowledge, foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of the war, oppression, and misery that have beset the world. Yes. As shown above. Good to see this penetrating the discourse.
Russell claimed that he was more convinced of his method of doing philosophy than of his philosophical conclusions. Science was one of the principal components of analysis. Russell was a believer in the scientific method, that science reaches only tentative answers, that scientific progress is piecemeal, and attempts to find organic unities were largely futile. He believed the same was true of philosophy. Russell held that the ultimate objective of both science and philosophy was to understand reality, not simply to make predictions. Our knowledge is probabilistic and the scientific method helps to uncover it. Philosophy loves this knowledge, organizes it, and directs its inquiry. Philosophy will evolve as our knowledge evolves.
Russell sought clarity and precision in argument by the use of exact language and by breaking down philosophical propositions into their simplest grammatical components. In 1900, he became familiar with the work of the Italian mathematician, Giuseppe Peano. He mastered Peano's new symbolism and his set of axioms for arithmetic. Peano defined logically all of the terms of these axioms with the exception of ‘0’, ‘number’, ‘successor’, and the singular term, ‘the’, which were the primitives of his system. Russell took it upon himself to find logical definitions for each of these. Yes, but this is where philosophy began to confine itself to only a minor part of philosophy. It is simply logic applied to language and mathematics.
Needs to Adapt
A significant contribution to philosophy of language is Russell's theory of descriptions. The theory considers the sentence "The present King of France is bald" and whether the proposition is false or meaningless. Frege had argued, employing his distinction between sense and reference, that such sentences were meaningful but neither true nor false. Russell argues that the grammatical form of the sentence disguises its underlying logical form. Russell's Theory of Definite Descriptions enables the sentence to be construed as meaningful but false, without commitment to the existence of any present King of France. The problem is general to what are called "definite descriptions.” Normally this includes all terms beginning with "the," and sometimes includes names, like "Walter Scott.” (This point is quite contentious: Russell sometimes thought that the latter terms shouldn't be called names at all, but only "disguised definite descriptions," but much subsequent work has treated them as altogether different things.) What is the "logical form" of definite descriptions: how, in Frege's terms, could we paraphrase them in order to show how the truth of the whole depends on the truths of the parts? Definite descriptions appear to be like names that by their very nature denote exactly one thing, neither more nor less. What, then, are we to say about the proposition as a whole if one of its parts apparently isn't functioning correctly? In this example, the role of the word “present” is ignored. Present defines the time period as when the reader reads it. Then the definite description of “the king of France” can be understood perfectly well and the statement can be true or false. This over-analysis of grammar known as analytical philosophy is just logic applied to writing. It is important to be clear, but this is a small part of our overarching knowledge. It does not deserve the central role in philosophy departments that it has achieved. It consigns them to the role of fussy nitpicker, rather than the broad-minded lover of wisdom.
Gone Extinct
While Russell wrote a great deal on ethical subject matters, he did not believe that the subject belonged to philosophy or that when he wrote on ethics that he did so in his capacity as a philosopher. He believed that moral facts were objective, but known only through intuition and that these simple, undefinable moral properties cannot be analyzed using the non-moral properties with which they are associated. In time, however, he came to agree with his philosophical hero, David Hume, who believed that ethical terms dealt with subjective values that cannot be verified in the same way as matters of fact. Ethics arise from nature. They arise from life’s need to stay alive in the long-term. Values can be objectively verified by the success of the resulting actions at keeping a species alive.
Survives
For most of his adult life Russell maintained that religion is little more than superstition, and despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed religion and the religious outlook (he considered communism and other systematic ideologies to be forms of religion) serve to impede knowledge, foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of the war, oppression, and misery that have beset the world. Yes. As shown above. Good to see this penetrating the discourse.
Russell claimed that he was more convinced of his method of doing philosophy than of his philosophical conclusions. Science was one of the principal components of analysis. Russell was a believer in the scientific method, that science reaches only tentative answers, that scientific progress is piecemeal, and attempts to find organic unities were largely futile. He believed the same was true of philosophy. Russell held that the ultimate objective of both science and philosophy was to understand reality, not simply to make predictions. Our knowledge is probabilistic and the scientific method helps to uncover it. Philosophy loves this knowledge, organizes it, and directs its inquiry. Philosophy will evolve as our knowledge evolves.
Russell sought clarity and precision in argument by the use of exact language and by breaking down philosophical propositions into their simplest grammatical components. In 1900, he became familiar with the work of the Italian mathematician, Giuseppe Peano. He mastered Peano's new symbolism and his set of axioms for arithmetic. Peano defined logically all of the terms of these axioms with the exception of ‘0’, ‘number’, ‘successor’, and the singular term, ‘the’, which were the primitives of his system. Russell took it upon himself to find logical definitions for each of these. Yes, but this is where philosophy began to confine itself to only a minor part of philosophy. It is simply logic applied to language and mathematics.
Needs to Adapt
A significant contribution to philosophy of language is Russell's theory of descriptions. The theory considers the sentence "The present King of France is bald" and whether the proposition is false or meaningless. Frege had argued, employing his distinction between sense and reference, that such sentences were meaningful but neither true nor false. Russell argues that the grammatical form of the sentence disguises its underlying logical form. Russell's Theory of Definite Descriptions enables the sentence to be construed as meaningful but false, without commitment to the existence of any present King of France. The problem is general to what are called "definite descriptions.” Normally this includes all terms beginning with "the," and sometimes includes names, like "Walter Scott.” (This point is quite contentious: Russell sometimes thought that the latter terms shouldn't be called names at all, but only "disguised definite descriptions," but much subsequent work has treated them as altogether different things.) What is the "logical form" of definite descriptions: how, in Frege's terms, could we paraphrase them in order to show how the truth of the whole depends on the truths of the parts? Definite descriptions appear to be like names that by their very nature denote exactly one thing, neither more nor less. What, then, are we to say about the proposition as a whole if one of its parts apparently isn't functioning correctly? In this example, the role of the word “present” is ignored. Present defines the time period as when the reader reads it. Then the definite description of “the king of France” can be understood perfectly well and the statement can be true or false. This over-analysis of grammar known as analytical philosophy is just logic applied to writing. It is important to be clear, but this is a small part of our overarching knowledge. It does not deserve the central role in philosophy departments that it has achieved. It consigns them to the role of fussy nitpicker, rather than the broad-minded lover of wisdom.
Gone Extinct
While Russell wrote a great deal on ethical subject matters, he did not believe that the subject belonged to philosophy or that when he wrote on ethics that he did so in his capacity as a philosopher. He believed that moral facts were objective, but known only through intuition and that these simple, undefinable moral properties cannot be analyzed using the non-moral properties with which they are associated. In time, however, he came to agree with his philosophical hero, David Hume, who believed that ethical terms dealt with subjective values that cannot be verified in the same way as matters of fact. Ethics arise from nature. They arise from life’s need to stay alive in the long-term. Values can be objectively verified by the success of the resulting actions at keeping a species alive.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951 CE) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. Wittgenstein is considered by many to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century.
Survives
After the completion of his first book, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1918, Wittgenstein believed he had solved all the problems of philosophy and he abandoned his studies. However, in 1929 he returned to Cambridge and began the meditations that ultimately led him to renounce or revise much of his earlier work, rejecting the analytical fantasy that a philosophical language could be derived mathematically from first principles, in favor of a more descriptive linguistic philosophy. This change of mind culminated in his second magnum opus, the Philosophical Investigations, which was published posthumously. In it, Wittgenstein asks the reader to think of language as a multiplicity of language-games within which parts of language develop and function. He argues philosophical problems are bewitchments that arise from philosophers' misguided attempts to consider the meaning of words independently of their context, usage, and grammar, what he called "language gone on holiday.” According to Wittgenstein, philosophical problems arise when language is forced from its proper home into a metaphysical environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are removed. He describes this metaphysical environment as like being on frictionless ice: where the conditions are apparently perfect for a philosophically and logically perfect language - the language of the Tractatus - where all philosophical problems can be solved without the muddying effects of everyday contexts; but where, precisely because of the lack of friction, language can in fact do no work at all. Wittgenstein argues that philosophers must leave the frictionless ice and return to the "rough ground" of ordinary language in use. Ordinary language is the easiest way to express penetrating insight. Abstruse language is the sign of an obtuse mind.
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is probably most well known for the logical atomism that Russell himself stressed in it: the picture theory of meaning. The world consists of independent atomic facts - existing states of affairs - out of which larger facts are built. Language consists of atomic, and then larger-scale, propositions that correspond to these facts by sharing the same logical form. Thought, expressed in language, "pictures" these facts. Wittgenstein himself later recanted these beliefs. This is more logical-grammatical acrobatics that ended up upside down.
The whole sense of the Wittgenstein’s first book might be summed up in the following words: what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence. Those things that cannot be expressed in words make themselves manifest; Wittgenstein calls them the mystical. They include everything that is the traditional subject matter of philosophy, because what can be said is exhausted by the natural sciences. Philosophy is not one of the natural sciences. The word philosophy must mean something whose place is above or below the natural sciences, not beside them. Philosophy helps us guide, categorize, and understand the natural sciences. The natural sciences inform philosophers about the big questions they are asking. The two fields are intertwined and supportive of one another, just as all life supports and is intertwined with other life.
Survives
After the completion of his first book, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1918, Wittgenstein believed he had solved all the problems of philosophy and he abandoned his studies. However, in 1929 he returned to Cambridge and began the meditations that ultimately led him to renounce or revise much of his earlier work, rejecting the analytical fantasy that a philosophical language could be derived mathematically from first principles, in favor of a more descriptive linguistic philosophy. This change of mind culminated in his second magnum opus, the Philosophical Investigations, which was published posthumously. In it, Wittgenstein asks the reader to think of language as a multiplicity of language-games within which parts of language develop and function. He argues philosophical problems are bewitchments that arise from philosophers' misguided attempts to consider the meaning of words independently of their context, usage, and grammar, what he called "language gone on holiday.” According to Wittgenstein, philosophical problems arise when language is forced from its proper home into a metaphysical environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are removed. He describes this metaphysical environment as like being on frictionless ice: where the conditions are apparently perfect for a philosophically and logically perfect language - the language of the Tractatus - where all philosophical problems can be solved without the muddying effects of everyday contexts; but where, precisely because of the lack of friction, language can in fact do no work at all. Wittgenstein argues that philosophers must leave the frictionless ice and return to the "rough ground" of ordinary language in use. Ordinary language is the easiest way to express penetrating insight. Abstruse language is the sign of an obtuse mind.
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is probably most well known for the logical atomism that Russell himself stressed in it: the picture theory of meaning. The world consists of independent atomic facts - existing states of affairs - out of which larger facts are built. Language consists of atomic, and then larger-scale, propositions that correspond to these facts by sharing the same logical form. Thought, expressed in language, "pictures" these facts. Wittgenstein himself later recanted these beliefs. This is more logical-grammatical acrobatics that ended up upside down.
The whole sense of the Wittgenstein’s first book might be summed up in the following words: what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence. Those things that cannot be expressed in words make themselves manifest; Wittgenstein calls them the mystical. They include everything that is the traditional subject matter of philosophy, because what can be said is exhausted by the natural sciences. Philosophy is not one of the natural sciences. The word philosophy must mean something whose place is above or below the natural sciences, not beside them. Philosophy helps us guide, categorize, and understand the natural sciences. The natural sciences inform philosophers about the big questions they are asking. The two fields are intertwined and supportive of one another, just as all life supports and is intertwined with other life.
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976 CE) was a German philosopher whose best-known book, Being and Time, is considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century. Heidegger's work has strongly influenced philosophy, theology, and the humanities. Within philosophy it played a crucial role in the development of existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction, postmodernism, and continental philosophy in general. Bertrand Russell called the philosophy of Heidegger highly eccentric in its terminology and extremely obscure. English philosopher Roger Scruton stated that, “Heidegger’s major work Being and Time is formidably difficult - unless it is utter nonsense, in which case it is laughably easy. I am not sure how to judge it, and have read no commentator who even begins to make sense of it.” Heidegger was also a prominent member of the Nazi party, for which he often comes under attack.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Heidegger's philosophy is founded on the attempt to conjoin what he considers two fundamental insights. The first is that Heidegger claimed Western philosophy has, since Plato, misunderstood what it means for something "to be," tending to approach this question in terms of a being, rather than asking about being itself. In other words, Heidegger believed all investigations of being have historically focused on particular entities and their properties, or have treated being itself as an entity, or substance, with properties. A more authentic analysis of being would, for Heidegger, investigate "that on the basis of which beings are already understood," or that which underlies all particular entities and allows them to show up as entities in the first place. Secondly, Heidegger argues that to be able to describe experience properly means finding the being for whom such a description might matter. Heidegger thus conducts his description of experience with reference to "Dasein," the being for whom being is a question. In Being and Time, Heidegger criticized the abstract and metaphysical character of traditional ways of grasping human existence as rational animal, person, man, soul, spirit, or subject. Dasein, then, is not intended as a way of conducting a philosophical anthropology, but is rather understood by Heidegger to be the condition of possibility for anything like a philosophical anthropology. Dasein, according to Heidegger, is care. In the course of his existential analytic, Heidegger argues that Dasein, who finds itself thrown into the world amidst things and with others, is thrown into its possibilities, including the possibility and inevitability of one's own mortality. The need for Dasein to assume these possibilities, that is, the need to be responsible for one's own existence, is the basis of Heidegger's notions of authenticity and resoluteness - that is, of those specific possibilities for Dasein that depend on escaping the vulgar temporality of calculation and of public life. The marriage of these two observations depends on the fact that each of them is essentially concerned with time. That Dasein is thrown into an already existing world and thus into its mortal possibilities does not only mean that Dasein is an essentially temporal being; it also implies that the description of Dasein can only be carried out in terms inherited from the Western tradition itself. Ugh. This seems like nothing other than the removal of reality by one step and calling that reality - Plato and his parable of the cave rehashed and obscured to cover his tracks. I would have dropped Heidegger from this list had he not been in Monty Python’s philosopher song.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Heidegger's philosophy is founded on the attempt to conjoin what he considers two fundamental insights. The first is that Heidegger claimed Western philosophy has, since Plato, misunderstood what it means for something "to be," tending to approach this question in terms of a being, rather than asking about being itself. In other words, Heidegger believed all investigations of being have historically focused on particular entities and their properties, or have treated being itself as an entity, or substance, with properties. A more authentic analysis of being would, for Heidegger, investigate "that on the basis of which beings are already understood," or that which underlies all particular entities and allows them to show up as entities in the first place. Secondly, Heidegger argues that to be able to describe experience properly means finding the being for whom such a description might matter. Heidegger thus conducts his description of experience with reference to "Dasein," the being for whom being is a question. In Being and Time, Heidegger criticized the abstract and metaphysical character of traditional ways of grasping human existence as rational animal, person, man, soul, spirit, or subject. Dasein, then, is not intended as a way of conducting a philosophical anthropology, but is rather understood by Heidegger to be the condition of possibility for anything like a philosophical anthropology. Dasein, according to Heidegger, is care. In the course of his existential analytic, Heidegger argues that Dasein, who finds itself thrown into the world amidst things and with others, is thrown into its possibilities, including the possibility and inevitability of one's own mortality. The need for Dasein to assume these possibilities, that is, the need to be responsible for one's own existence, is the basis of Heidegger's notions of authenticity and resoluteness - that is, of those specific possibilities for Dasein that depend on escaping the vulgar temporality of calculation and of public life. The marriage of these two observations depends on the fact that each of them is essentially concerned with time. That Dasein is thrown into an already existing world and thus into its mortal possibilities does not only mean that Dasein is an essentially temporal being; it also implies that the description of Dasein can only be carried out in terms inherited from the Western tradition itself. Ugh. This seems like nothing other than the removal of reality by one step and calling that reality - Plato and his parable of the cave rehashed and obscured to cover his tracks. I would have dropped Heidegger from this list had he not been in Monty Python’s philosopher song.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980 CE) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
The main idea of Jean-Paul Sartre is that we are, as humans, "condemned to be free.” This theory relies upon his belief that there is no creator, and is formed using the example of the paper knife. Sartre says that if one considered a paper knife, one would assume that the creator would have had a plan for it: an essence. Sartre said that human beings have no essence before their existence because there is no Creator. Thus, "existence precedes essence.” This forms the basis for his assertion that since one cannot explain their own actions and behavior by referencing any specific human nature, they are necessarily fully responsible for those actions. "We are left alone, without excuse.” There is no evidence for a god or creator. Life has evolved blindly, without purpose, and from no essence. However, we do exist and the rules of evolution point towards ways to continue that existence. In that sense, evolution points existence towards an essence. That essence is immortal life. Life will evolve until it achieves it. We are not condemned to be free; we are free to live.
Gone Extinct
Originally, Sartre believed that our ideas are the product of experiences of real-life situations, and novels and plays can well describe such fundamental experiences, having equal value to discursive essays for the elaboration of philosophical theories such as existentialism. Later, Sartre concluded that literature functioned ultimately as a bourgeois substitute for real commitment in the world, and thus turned down a Nobel Prize for literature. Art has its purpose in society. Art instructs and inspires us. No art takes hold of the mind for the length of time that literature does. It is a useful and difficult pursuit.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
The main idea of Jean-Paul Sartre is that we are, as humans, "condemned to be free.” This theory relies upon his belief that there is no creator, and is formed using the example of the paper knife. Sartre says that if one considered a paper knife, one would assume that the creator would have had a plan for it: an essence. Sartre said that human beings have no essence before their existence because there is no Creator. Thus, "existence precedes essence.” This forms the basis for his assertion that since one cannot explain their own actions and behavior by referencing any specific human nature, they are necessarily fully responsible for those actions. "We are left alone, without excuse.” There is no evidence for a god or creator. Life has evolved blindly, without purpose, and from no essence. However, we do exist and the rules of evolution point towards ways to continue that existence. In that sense, evolution points existence towards an essence. That essence is immortal life. Life will evolve until it achieves it. We are not condemned to be free; we are free to live.
Gone Extinct
Originally, Sartre believed that our ideas are the product of experiences of real-life situations, and novels and plays can well describe such fundamental experiences, having equal value to discursive essays for the elaboration of philosophical theories such as existentialism. Later, Sartre concluded that literature functioned ultimately as a bourgeois substitute for real commitment in the world, and thus turned down a Nobel Prize for literature. Art has its purpose in society. Art instructs and inspires us. No art takes hold of the mind for the length of time that literature does. It is a useful and difficult pursuit.
Ayn Rand (1905-1982 CE) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. She continues to have a popular following, as well as a growing influence among scholars and academics. Rand’s political ideas have been especially influential among libertarians and conservatives. In 1991, a survey asked Book-of-the-Month club members what the most influential book in the respondent's life was. After the Bible, Rand's Atlas Shrugged was the second most popular choice.
Survives
In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism and atheism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism. Rejecting faith as antithetical to reason, Rand rejected organized religion. Yes. Nice to see this surviving among philosophers.
In epistemology, she considered all knowledge to be based on sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic, and reason, which she described as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses.” She rejected all claims of non-perceptual or a priori knowledge, including instinct, intuition, revelation, or any form of just knowing. Yes. Keeping alive this great tradition.
Needs to Adapt
Rand's aesthetics defined art as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments.” According to Rand, art allows philosophical concepts to be presented in a concrete form that can be easily grasped, thereby fulfilling a need of human consciousness. As a writer, the art form Rand focused on most closely was literature, where she considered Romanticism to be the approach that most accurately reflected the existence of human free will. She described her own approach to literature as "romantic realism.” A very robust definition of art and description of its purpose. Unfortunately, Rand’s particular metaphysical value judgments were flawed, as we will see below. Also, her view of romanticism that called on artists to inspire the world with only positive examples of mankind removes the half of art that inspires the world through portraits of what it has done wrong. To find the right path in life, we must understand both sides of good and evil, we must be able to motivate ourselves using both attraction and avoidance.
Gone Extinct
In ethics, Rand argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle. She said the individual should "exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself.” She referred to egoism as "the virtue of selfishness" in her book of that title, in which she presented her solution to the is-ought problem by describing a meta-ethical theory that based morality in the needs of "man's survival qua man.” Rand ignores the evolution of the individual within the species, and the evolution of the species within life in general. The is-ought problem is solved by life’s survival qua life. This implies a completely different set of ethics revolving around the long-term balance of competition and cooperation.
Rand's political views, reflected in both her fiction and her theoretical work, emphasize individual rights (including property rights) and laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by a constitutionally limited government. She was a fierce opponent of all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and she promoted ethical egoism while rejecting the ethic of altruism. Rand rightly rejected the fascism, communism, and socialism she grew up with. At best, they were corrupt attempts at creating societies where 100% cooperation was the goal. At worst, they were brutal dictatorships murdering and stealing from their citizens for their own selfish benefit. Her confused response of advocating extreme competition and freedom from all state control or social support was running in the right direction but going much too far. The answer is in the middle, balancing cooperation with competition and designing the state, the economy, and society in such a way as to optimize this balance.
She remarked that in the history of philosophy she could only recommend "three A's - Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand.” Among the philosophers Rand held in particular disdain was Immanuel Kant, whom she referred to as a "monster" and "the most evil man in history.” Rand was strongly opposed to the view that reason is unable to know reality "as it is in itself," which she ascribed to Kant. She considered her philosophy to be the "exact opposite" of Kant's on "every fundamental issue.” Objectivist philosophers George Walsh and Fred Seddon both argue that Rand misinterpreted Kant. In particular, Walsh argues that both philosophers adhere to many of the same basic positions, and that Rand exaggerated her differences with Kant. Walsh says that for many critics, Rand's writing on Kant is "ignorant and unworthy of discussion.” More evidence of Rand’s lazy reasoning. Aquinas should have been quite an object of scorn for Rand, and she clearly misunderstood Kant. If you want to create an enduring philosophical system, you must do your homework...
Survives
In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism and atheism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism. Rejecting faith as antithetical to reason, Rand rejected organized religion. Yes. Nice to see this surviving among philosophers.
In epistemology, she considered all knowledge to be based on sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic, and reason, which she described as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses.” She rejected all claims of non-perceptual or a priori knowledge, including instinct, intuition, revelation, or any form of just knowing. Yes. Keeping alive this great tradition.
Needs to Adapt
Rand's aesthetics defined art as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments.” According to Rand, art allows philosophical concepts to be presented in a concrete form that can be easily grasped, thereby fulfilling a need of human consciousness. As a writer, the art form Rand focused on most closely was literature, where she considered Romanticism to be the approach that most accurately reflected the existence of human free will. She described her own approach to literature as "romantic realism.” A very robust definition of art and description of its purpose. Unfortunately, Rand’s particular metaphysical value judgments were flawed, as we will see below. Also, her view of romanticism that called on artists to inspire the world with only positive examples of mankind removes the half of art that inspires the world through portraits of what it has done wrong. To find the right path in life, we must understand both sides of good and evil, we must be able to motivate ourselves using both attraction and avoidance.
Gone Extinct
In ethics, Rand argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle. She said the individual should "exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself.” She referred to egoism as "the virtue of selfishness" in her book of that title, in which she presented her solution to the is-ought problem by describing a meta-ethical theory that based morality in the needs of "man's survival qua man.” Rand ignores the evolution of the individual within the species, and the evolution of the species within life in general. The is-ought problem is solved by life’s survival qua life. This implies a completely different set of ethics revolving around the long-term balance of competition and cooperation.
Rand's political views, reflected in both her fiction and her theoretical work, emphasize individual rights (including property rights) and laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by a constitutionally limited government. She was a fierce opponent of all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and she promoted ethical egoism while rejecting the ethic of altruism. Rand rightly rejected the fascism, communism, and socialism she grew up with. At best, they were corrupt attempts at creating societies where 100% cooperation was the goal. At worst, they were brutal dictatorships murdering and stealing from their citizens for their own selfish benefit. Her confused response of advocating extreme competition and freedom from all state control or social support was running in the right direction but going much too far. The answer is in the middle, balancing cooperation with competition and designing the state, the economy, and society in such a way as to optimize this balance.
She remarked that in the history of philosophy she could only recommend "three A's - Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand.” Among the philosophers Rand held in particular disdain was Immanuel Kant, whom she referred to as a "monster" and "the most evil man in history.” Rand was strongly opposed to the view that reason is unable to know reality "as it is in itself," which she ascribed to Kant. She considered her philosophy to be the "exact opposite" of Kant's on "every fundamental issue.” Objectivist philosophers George Walsh and Fred Seddon both argue that Rand misinterpreted Kant. In particular, Walsh argues that both philosophers adhere to many of the same basic positions, and that Rand exaggerated her differences with Kant. Walsh says that for many critics, Rand's writing on Kant is "ignorant and unworthy of discussion.” More evidence of Rand’s lazy reasoning. Aquinas should have been quite an object of scorn for Rand, and she clearly misunderstood Kant. If you want to create an enduring philosophical system, you must do your homework...
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986 CE) was a French writer, existentialist philosopher, feminist, and social theorist. She did not consider herself a philosopher but her significant contributions to existentialism and feminist existentialism have solidified her legacy as a philosopher and feminist.
Survives
As an existentialist, Beauvoir believed that existence precedes essence; hence one is not born a woman, but becomes one. Beauvoir asserted that women are as capable of choice as men, and thus can choose to elevate themselves, moving beyond the immanence to which they were previously resigned and reaching transcendence, a position in which one takes responsibility for oneself and the world, where one chooses one's freedom. Certainly, Beauvoir was born a woman biologically, but the sense of the word she is getting at is a fully realized human. Beauvoir’s ideas are a good reminder that women are equal partners in the cooperative society we must build. Women should never be subjugated by force because their bodies are weaker than men’s, nor have their lives subjugated by children because they are the biological home for their gestation. Women and men must play equal roles in society and in the family.
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Survives
As an existentialist, Beauvoir believed that existence precedes essence; hence one is not born a woman, but becomes one. Beauvoir asserted that women are as capable of choice as men, and thus can choose to elevate themselves, moving beyond the immanence to which they were previously resigned and reaching transcendence, a position in which one takes responsibility for oneself and the world, where one chooses one's freedom. Certainly, Beauvoir was born a woman biologically, but the sense of the word she is getting at is a fully realized human. Beauvoir’s ideas are a good reminder that women are equal partners in the cooperative society we must build. Women should never be subjugated by force because their bodies are weaker than men’s, nor have their lives subjugated by children because they are the biological home for their gestation. Women and men must play equal roles in society and in the family.
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Willard Quine (1908-2000 CE) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition. A recent poll conducted among analytic philosophers named Quine one of the five most important philosophers of the past two centuries, although the bulk of his writing was in technical areas of philosophy.
Survives
By the 1960s, Quine had worked out his "naturalized epistemology" whose aim was to answer all substantive questions of knowledge and meaning using the methods and tools of the natural sciences. Quine roundly rejected the notion that there should be a "first philosophy," a theoretical standpoint somehow prior to natural science and capable of justifying it. These views are intrinsic to his naturalism. (Metaphysical naturalism holds that there is nothing but natural things, forces, and causes, of the kind studied by the natural sciences.) Yes. Philosophy must work together with the natural sciences to gather and organize our knowledge. They support one another.
Quine falls squarely into the analytic philosophy tradition while also being the main proponent of the view that philosophy is not conceptual analysis. Conceptual analysis consists primarily in breaking down or analyzing concepts into their constituent parts in order to gain knowledge or a better understanding of a particular philosophical issue in which the concept is involved. For example, the problem of free will in philosophy involves various key concepts, including the concepts of freedom, moral responsibility, determinism, ability, and so on. The method of conceptual analysis tends to approach such a problem by breaking down the key concepts pertaining to the problem and seeing how they interact. Yes. Philosophy’s role is bigger than that.
Quine doubted the tenability of the distinction between "analytic" statements - those true simply by the meanings of their words, such as "All bachelors are unmarried" - and "synthetic" statements - those true or false by virtue of facts about the world, such as "There is a cat on the mat.” This distinction had been central to logical positivism. Although Quine's criticisms played a major role in the decline of logical positivism, he remained a verificationist, to the point of invoking verificationism to undermine the analytic-synthetic distinction. Quine's chief objection to analyticity is with the notion of synonymy (sameness of meaning) - a sentence being analytic just in the case that it substitutes a synonym for one "black" in a proposition like "All black things are black" (or any other logical truth). The objection to synonymy hinges upon the problem of collateral information. We intuitively feel that there is a distinction between "All unmarried men are bachelors" and "There have been black dogs," but a competent English speaker will assent to both sentences under all conditions since such speakers also have access to collateral information bearing on the historical existence of black dogs. Quine maintains that there is no distinction between universally known collateral information and conceptual or analytic truths. Yes. An important breakthrough for common sense in the study of logic and philosophy.
Quine's writings have led to the wide acceptance of instrumentalism in the philosophy of science. In this sense, instrumentalism is the view that a scientific theory is a useful instrument in understanding the world. A concept or theory should be evaluated by how effectively it explains and predicts phenomena, as opposed to how accurately it describes objective reality. Yes. Predicting phenomena is the pragmatic best we can do. Common sense describes the action and appearance of phenomena as objective reality, but we cannot know what else we may someday discover about this reality to justify labeling our description as 100% objective.
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Survives
By the 1960s, Quine had worked out his "naturalized epistemology" whose aim was to answer all substantive questions of knowledge and meaning using the methods and tools of the natural sciences. Quine roundly rejected the notion that there should be a "first philosophy," a theoretical standpoint somehow prior to natural science and capable of justifying it. These views are intrinsic to his naturalism. (Metaphysical naturalism holds that there is nothing but natural things, forces, and causes, of the kind studied by the natural sciences.) Yes. Philosophy must work together with the natural sciences to gather and organize our knowledge. They support one another.
Quine falls squarely into the analytic philosophy tradition while also being the main proponent of the view that philosophy is not conceptual analysis. Conceptual analysis consists primarily in breaking down or analyzing concepts into their constituent parts in order to gain knowledge or a better understanding of a particular philosophical issue in which the concept is involved. For example, the problem of free will in philosophy involves various key concepts, including the concepts of freedom, moral responsibility, determinism, ability, and so on. The method of conceptual analysis tends to approach such a problem by breaking down the key concepts pertaining to the problem and seeing how they interact. Yes. Philosophy’s role is bigger than that.
Quine doubted the tenability of the distinction between "analytic" statements - those true simply by the meanings of their words, such as "All bachelors are unmarried" - and "synthetic" statements - those true or false by virtue of facts about the world, such as "There is a cat on the mat.” This distinction had been central to logical positivism. Although Quine's criticisms played a major role in the decline of logical positivism, he remained a verificationist, to the point of invoking verificationism to undermine the analytic-synthetic distinction. Quine's chief objection to analyticity is with the notion of synonymy (sameness of meaning) - a sentence being analytic just in the case that it substitutes a synonym for one "black" in a proposition like "All black things are black" (or any other logical truth). The objection to synonymy hinges upon the problem of collateral information. We intuitively feel that there is a distinction between "All unmarried men are bachelors" and "There have been black dogs," but a competent English speaker will assent to both sentences under all conditions since such speakers also have access to collateral information bearing on the historical existence of black dogs. Quine maintains that there is no distinction between universally known collateral information and conceptual or analytic truths. Yes. An important breakthrough for common sense in the study of logic and philosophy.
Quine's writings have led to the wide acceptance of instrumentalism in the philosophy of science. In this sense, instrumentalism is the view that a scientific theory is a useful instrument in understanding the world. A concept or theory should be evaluated by how effectively it explains and predicts phenomena, as opposed to how accurately it describes objective reality. Yes. Predicting phenomena is the pragmatic best we can do. Common sense describes the action and appearance of phenomena as objective reality, but we cannot know what else we may someday discover about this reality to justify labeling our description as 100% objective.
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Alfred Ayer (1910-1989 CE) was a British philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism.
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Needs to Adapt
Logical positivism is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism – the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world – with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logical-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology. The doctrines included the opposition to all metaphysics, especially ontology and synthetic a priori propositions; the rejection of metaphysics not as wrong but as having no meaning; the idea that all knowledge should be codifiable by a single standard language of science; and above all the project of rational reconstruction, in which ordinary-language concepts were gradually to be replaced by more precise equivalents in that standard language. It is correct to reject a priori propositions, but metaphysics is cosmology plus ontology. Philosophers can play a role in looking at the scientific findings of cosmology and helping us interpret what that means for our ontological definitions of what it means to be human. Languages already contain definitions that can be made perfectly clear. The search for a single standard language of science is uselessly duplicative.
Gone Extinct
Ayer believed in the viewpoint he shared with the logical positivists: that large parts of what was traditionally called philosophy - including the whole of metaphysics, theology, and aesthetics - were not matters that could be judged as being true or false and that it was thus meaningless to discuss them. Our knowledge is limited and probabilistic. It does not mean we should not discuss what we do not know with 100% certainty. In fact, those items need much discussion to help us come to grips with our level of uncertainty about them.
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Needs to Adapt
Logical positivism is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism – the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world – with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logical-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology. The doctrines included the opposition to all metaphysics, especially ontology and synthetic a priori propositions; the rejection of metaphysics not as wrong but as having no meaning; the idea that all knowledge should be codifiable by a single standard language of science; and above all the project of rational reconstruction, in which ordinary-language concepts were gradually to be replaced by more precise equivalents in that standard language. It is correct to reject a priori propositions, but metaphysics is cosmology plus ontology. Philosophers can play a role in looking at the scientific findings of cosmology and helping us interpret what that means for our ontological definitions of what it means to be human. Languages already contain definitions that can be made perfectly clear. The search for a single standard language of science is uselessly duplicative.
Gone Extinct
Ayer believed in the viewpoint he shared with the logical positivists: that large parts of what was traditionally called philosophy - including the whole of metaphysics, theology, and aesthetics - were not matters that could be judged as being true or false and that it was thus meaningless to discuss them. Our knowledge is limited and probabilistic. It does not mean we should not discuss what we do not know with 100% certainty. In fact, those items need much discussion to help us come to grips with our level of uncertainty about them.
John Rawls (1921-2002 CE) was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. His magnum opus, A Theory of Justice (1971), was hailed at the time of its publication as the most important work in moral philosophy since the end of World War II, and is now regarded as one of the primary texts in political philosophy.
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Needs to Adapt
The “original position” is Rawls’ thought experiment to replace the imagery of a savage state of nature from prior political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes. In it, parties select principles that will determine the basic structure of the society they will live in. This choice is made from behind a “veil of ignorance,” which would deprive participants of information about their particular characteristics: his or her ethnicity, social status, gender, and conception of the good (an individual's idea of how to lead a good life). This forces participants to select principles impartially and rationally. The original position is designed to reflect what principles of justice would be manifest in a society premised on free and fair cooperation between citizens, including respect for liberty, and an interest in reciprocity. The veil of ignorance may lead to mutual respect for others, but why resort to ignorance when knowledge gets you to the right answer? The survival of life as the principle conception of the good is universal and leads to the right outcomes for how to design a cooperative society focused on the long-term.
Rawls’ theory of justice is described: Justice as Fairness. It comprises two main principles of Liberty and Equality; the second is subdivided into Fair Equality of Opportunity and the Difference Principle. The first and most important principle, Liberty, states that every individual has an equal right to basic liberties. Basic liberties are inalienable: no government can amend, infringe, or remove them from individuals. Rawls claimed, however, that certain rights and freedoms are more important or basic than others. For example, Rawls believed that personal property - personal belongings, a home - constitutes a basic liberty, but an absolute right to unlimited private property is not. The Equality Principle is the component of Justice as Fairness establishing distributive justice. Rawls presents it as follows: "Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. The Difference Principle regulates inequalities: it only permits inequalities that work to the advantage of the worst-off. By guaranteeing the worst-off in society a fair deal, Rawls compensates for naturally occurring inequalities (talents that one is born with, such as a capacity for sport). Rights and liberties do not arise from nature. Ask the zebra, hyena, or omega member of a pack. Only the state grants liberties, but it must grant them equally to maintain a cooperative society, and it must optimize those liberties to maximize the ability of the species to survive. To maintain the ethic of cooperation, every member of society must contribute to it, and every member must be taken care of. Every member of society must recognize the support that society and the history of mankind has given them. Then, distributive justice will divide the benefits of society form each according to their talents to each according to their effort. Inequalities will arise due to the distribution of talent and effort, but must be confined to orders of magnitude that are sustainable to members of a cooperative and just society. The worst-off will therefore receive the bulk of largesse from the rest of society, but the best-off will have the freedom to pursue their passions, the just rewards for their contributions, the satisfaction of pulling society forward towards continued survival, and the comfort that they have not separated themselves from the pack.
The term “reflective equilibrium” was coined by Rawls as a method for arriving at the content of the principles of justice. Reflective equilibrium is a state of balance or coherence among a set of beliefs arrived at by a process of deliberative mutual adjustment among general principles and particular judgments. Rawls argues that human beings have a "sense of justice" that is both a source of moral judgment and moral motivation. In Rawls's theory, we begin with "considered judgments" that arise from the sense of justice. These may be judgments about general moral principles (of any level of generality) or specific moral cases. If our judgments conflict in some way, we proceed by adjusting our various beliefs until they are in equilibrium, which is to say that they are stable, not in conflict, and provide consistent practical guidance. Rawls argues that a set of moral beliefs in ideal reflective equilibrium describes or characterizes the underlying principles of the human sense of justice. Rawls is merely describing a scientific method of hypothesis testing that will arrive at the truth about justice. This is the way all truths are arrived at. Thus, the ideal reflective equilibrium is achieved when the basis for justice is understood - the need for life to survive in the long-term. Humans have a “sense of justice” but it is in conflict when it must decide between short-term emotions or long-term reason. Reason must prevail over sense.
Gone Extinct
Overlapping consensus is a term coined by Rawls to refer to how supporters of different comprehensive doctrines can agree on a specific form of political organization. These doctrines can include religion, political ideology, or morals. However, Rawls is clear that such political agreement is narrow and focused on justice. This consensus is reached, in part, by avoiding the deepest arguments in religion and philosophy. The deepest arguments in religion and philosophy have left us with the deepest divides between factions of humanity. In order to cooperate fully and promote the long-term survival of the species, these divides must be bridged by knowledge uncovered through science and reason. The universal need for the survival of life is the universal basis for arriving at consensus. Because our knowledge is imperfect, people will still disagree about the correct course of action even if they come at the problem with the same underlying view of reality. It is these realms where caution is needed, diversity is valued, and limited trial and error should govern the competition of ideas until broader consensus is reached.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
The “original position” is Rawls’ thought experiment to replace the imagery of a savage state of nature from prior political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes. In it, parties select principles that will determine the basic structure of the society they will live in. This choice is made from behind a “veil of ignorance,” which would deprive participants of information about their particular characteristics: his or her ethnicity, social status, gender, and conception of the good (an individual's idea of how to lead a good life). This forces participants to select principles impartially and rationally. The original position is designed to reflect what principles of justice would be manifest in a society premised on free and fair cooperation between citizens, including respect for liberty, and an interest in reciprocity. The veil of ignorance may lead to mutual respect for others, but why resort to ignorance when knowledge gets you to the right answer? The survival of life as the principle conception of the good is universal and leads to the right outcomes for how to design a cooperative society focused on the long-term.
Rawls’ theory of justice is described: Justice as Fairness. It comprises two main principles of Liberty and Equality; the second is subdivided into Fair Equality of Opportunity and the Difference Principle. The first and most important principle, Liberty, states that every individual has an equal right to basic liberties. Basic liberties are inalienable: no government can amend, infringe, or remove them from individuals. Rawls claimed, however, that certain rights and freedoms are more important or basic than others. For example, Rawls believed that personal property - personal belongings, a home - constitutes a basic liberty, but an absolute right to unlimited private property is not. The Equality Principle is the component of Justice as Fairness establishing distributive justice. Rawls presents it as follows: "Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. The Difference Principle regulates inequalities: it only permits inequalities that work to the advantage of the worst-off. By guaranteeing the worst-off in society a fair deal, Rawls compensates for naturally occurring inequalities (talents that one is born with, such as a capacity for sport). Rights and liberties do not arise from nature. Ask the zebra, hyena, or omega member of a pack. Only the state grants liberties, but it must grant them equally to maintain a cooperative society, and it must optimize those liberties to maximize the ability of the species to survive. To maintain the ethic of cooperation, every member of society must contribute to it, and every member must be taken care of. Every member of society must recognize the support that society and the history of mankind has given them. Then, distributive justice will divide the benefits of society form each according to their talents to each according to their effort. Inequalities will arise due to the distribution of talent and effort, but must be confined to orders of magnitude that are sustainable to members of a cooperative and just society. The worst-off will therefore receive the bulk of largesse from the rest of society, but the best-off will have the freedom to pursue their passions, the just rewards for their contributions, the satisfaction of pulling society forward towards continued survival, and the comfort that they have not separated themselves from the pack.
The term “reflective equilibrium” was coined by Rawls as a method for arriving at the content of the principles of justice. Reflective equilibrium is a state of balance or coherence among a set of beliefs arrived at by a process of deliberative mutual adjustment among general principles and particular judgments. Rawls argues that human beings have a "sense of justice" that is both a source of moral judgment and moral motivation. In Rawls's theory, we begin with "considered judgments" that arise from the sense of justice. These may be judgments about general moral principles (of any level of generality) or specific moral cases. If our judgments conflict in some way, we proceed by adjusting our various beliefs until they are in equilibrium, which is to say that they are stable, not in conflict, and provide consistent practical guidance. Rawls argues that a set of moral beliefs in ideal reflective equilibrium describes or characterizes the underlying principles of the human sense of justice. Rawls is merely describing a scientific method of hypothesis testing that will arrive at the truth about justice. This is the way all truths are arrived at. Thus, the ideal reflective equilibrium is achieved when the basis for justice is understood - the need for life to survive in the long-term. Humans have a “sense of justice” but it is in conflict when it must decide between short-term emotions or long-term reason. Reason must prevail over sense.
Gone Extinct
Overlapping consensus is a term coined by Rawls to refer to how supporters of different comprehensive doctrines can agree on a specific form of political organization. These doctrines can include religion, political ideology, or morals. However, Rawls is clear that such political agreement is narrow and focused on justice. This consensus is reached, in part, by avoiding the deepest arguments in religion and philosophy. The deepest arguments in religion and philosophy have left us with the deepest divides between factions of humanity. In order to cooperate fully and promote the long-term survival of the species, these divides must be bridged by knowledge uncovered through science and reason. The universal need for the survival of life is the universal basis for arriving at consensus. Because our knowledge is imperfect, people will still disagree about the correct course of action even if they come at the problem with the same underlying view of reality. It is these realms where caution is needed, diversity is valued, and limited trial and error should govern the competition of ideas until broader consensus is reached.
Michel Foucault (1926-1984 CE) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and historian. Foucault is best known for his critical studies of social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences, and the prison system, as well as for his work on the history of human sexuality. His work on power, and the relationships among power, knowledge, and discourse has been widely discussed. In 2007, Foucault was listed as the most cited intellectual in the humanities.
Survives
One of Foucault’s central theses: all periods of history have possessed specific underlying conditions of truth that constituted what was acceptable as, for example, scientific discourse. Foucault argues that these conditions of discourse have changed over time, in major and relatively sudden shifts, from one period's episteme to another. Foucault refused to examine statements outside of their historical context. The meaning of a statement depends on the general rules that characterize the discursive formation to which it belongs. Fair enough. This is a good reason to give history’s philosophers some credit for working with the knowledge and tools they had at their disposal. It is also a good reason to re-examine their beliefs in light of our progress.
Needs to Adapt
In Foucault's "Technologies of Punishment," he considers two contrasting types of punishment. The first type, "Monarchical Punishment," involves the repression of the populace through brutal public displays of executions and torture. The second, "Disciplinary Punishment," is what Foucault says is practiced in the modern era. Disciplinary punishment gives professionals (psychologists, program facilitators, parole officers, etc.) power over the prisoner, most notably in that the prisoner's length of stay depends on the professionals' judgment. Foucault goes on to argue that Disciplinary punishment leads to self-policing by the populace as opposed to brutal displays of authority from the Monarchical period. Disciplinary punishment is clearly better than monarchical punishment, but there are other options. In a cooperative society concerned with the long-term survival of the species, which understands the workings of evolution and therefore insists on tit for tat justice and never allowing cheaters to win, the various means of punishment should be doled out as necessary and appropriate in an escalating order of: restoration, rehabilitation, and incapacitation as a last resort. The focus of these punishments is the education of the criminal and the deterrence of future offenses by the populace. Seeking retribution gives way to short-term emotions of vengeance that were useful in nature before the public good of justice was provided for by the state. Now though, the emotions of the victim of a crime must not be allowed to override the use of reason to create justice and stability for the long term.
Gone Extinct
The Order of Things made Foucault a prominent intellectual figure. In this book, Foucault made the claim that "man is only a recent invention" and that the "end of man is at hand.” As far as we know, man is at the end of an evolutionary process that began with the Big Bang. Evolution is the term we use to describe the way life attempts to survive. The end of man will only come when the species goes extinct or finds the means to immortal life. Either way, those ends could be near at hand or a long way off. Our actions will decide which and when.
Survives
One of Foucault’s central theses: all periods of history have possessed specific underlying conditions of truth that constituted what was acceptable as, for example, scientific discourse. Foucault argues that these conditions of discourse have changed over time, in major and relatively sudden shifts, from one period's episteme to another. Foucault refused to examine statements outside of their historical context. The meaning of a statement depends on the general rules that characterize the discursive formation to which it belongs. Fair enough. This is a good reason to give history’s philosophers some credit for working with the knowledge and tools they had at their disposal. It is also a good reason to re-examine their beliefs in light of our progress.
Needs to Adapt
In Foucault's "Technologies of Punishment," he considers two contrasting types of punishment. The first type, "Monarchical Punishment," involves the repression of the populace through brutal public displays of executions and torture. The second, "Disciplinary Punishment," is what Foucault says is practiced in the modern era. Disciplinary punishment gives professionals (psychologists, program facilitators, parole officers, etc.) power over the prisoner, most notably in that the prisoner's length of stay depends on the professionals' judgment. Foucault goes on to argue that Disciplinary punishment leads to self-policing by the populace as opposed to brutal displays of authority from the Monarchical period. Disciplinary punishment is clearly better than monarchical punishment, but there are other options. In a cooperative society concerned with the long-term survival of the species, which understands the workings of evolution and therefore insists on tit for tat justice and never allowing cheaters to win, the various means of punishment should be doled out as necessary and appropriate in an escalating order of: restoration, rehabilitation, and incapacitation as a last resort. The focus of these punishments is the education of the criminal and the deterrence of future offenses by the populace. Seeking retribution gives way to short-term emotions of vengeance that were useful in nature before the public good of justice was provided for by the state. Now though, the emotions of the victim of a crime must not be allowed to override the use of reason to create justice and stability for the long term.
Gone Extinct
The Order of Things made Foucault a prominent intellectual figure. In this book, Foucault made the claim that "man is only a recent invention" and that the "end of man is at hand.” As far as we know, man is at the end of an evolutionary process that began with the Big Bang. Evolution is the term we use to describe the way life attempts to survive. The end of man will only come when the species goes extinct or finds the means to immortal life. Either way, those ends could be near at hand or a long way off. Our actions will decide which and when.
Noam Chomsky (1928- CE) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as one of the fathers of modern linguistics. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident, an anarchist, and a libertarian socialist intellectual. Chomsky is often viewed as a notable figure in contemporary philosophy.
Survives
Chomsky’s Principles and Parameters approach (P&P) make strong claims regarding universal grammar: that the grammatical principles underlying languages are innate and fixed, and the differences among the world's languages can be characterized in terms of parameter settings in the brain (such as the pro-drop parameter, which indicates whether an explicit subject is always required, as in English, or can be optionally dropped, as in Spanish), which are often likened to switches. In this view, a child learning a language need only acquire the necessary lexical items (words, grammatical morphemes, and idioms), and determine the appropriate parameter settings, which can be done based on a few key examples. The similar steps followed by children all across the world when learning languages, and the fact that children make certain characteristic errors as they learn their first language, whereas other seemingly logical kinds of errors never occur, are pointed to as motivation for innateness. Proponents of this view also argue that the pace at which children learn languages is inexplicably rapid, unless children have an innate ability to learn languages. Experiments that raise animals in human environments also show that compared to them, humans certainly have an innate ability to grasp and produce language. It is another refutation of the blank slate theory of humans, and another confirmation of the “nature x nurture” explanation of human behavior. (While we are on the subject, I would make a small addition to linguistics: a two-by-two matrix analysis of the four elements of language. Language is either input or output and it can be done fast or slow. Fast input is listening; slow input is reading. Fast output is speaking; slow output is writing. Learn the fast to go fast. Practice the slow to go fast well. As infants or beginners, we must learn fast to join the conversation at all, but we remain prone to errors for life until we concentrate on the slow.)
Needs to Adapt
Chomsky constructed a model that attempts to explain a perceived systemic bias of the mass media in terms of structural economic causes rather than a conspiracy of people. He argues the bias derives from five filters that all published news must pass through, which combine to systematically distort news coverage. The first filter, ownership, notes that most major media outlets are owned by large corporations. The second, funding, notes that the outlets derive the majority of their funding from advertising, not readers. Thus, since they are profit-oriented businesses selling a product (readers and audiences) to other businesses (advertisers), the model expects them to publish news that reflects the desires and values of those businesses. In addition, the news media are dependent on government institutions and major businesses with strong biases as sources (the third filter) for much of their information. Flak, the fourth filter, refers to the various pressure groups that attack the media for supposed bias. Norms, the fifth filter, refer to the common conceptions shared by those in the profession of journalism. The model describes how the media form a decentralized and non-conspiratorial but nonetheless very powerful propaganda system, that is able to mobilize an élite consensus, frame public debate within élite perspectives and at the same time give the appearance of democratic consent. While these biases do exist, this analysis misses the roles that competition and evolution play in the media industry. News outlets must compete with each other for consumers. When consumers are educated and seek the truth, unbiased news outlets will win and survive. When consumers don’t care, are simply looking for entertainment, or seek to confirm their biases, then surviving news outlets will reflect these interests. In our pluralistic world, we see all of these forms of news. But we need knowledge to survive! Citizens must seek it and demand it.
Gone Extinct
Survives
Chomsky’s Principles and Parameters approach (P&P) make strong claims regarding universal grammar: that the grammatical principles underlying languages are innate and fixed, and the differences among the world's languages can be characterized in terms of parameter settings in the brain (such as the pro-drop parameter, which indicates whether an explicit subject is always required, as in English, or can be optionally dropped, as in Spanish), which are often likened to switches. In this view, a child learning a language need only acquire the necessary lexical items (words, grammatical morphemes, and idioms), and determine the appropriate parameter settings, which can be done based on a few key examples. The similar steps followed by children all across the world when learning languages, and the fact that children make certain characteristic errors as they learn their first language, whereas other seemingly logical kinds of errors never occur, are pointed to as motivation for innateness. Proponents of this view also argue that the pace at which children learn languages is inexplicably rapid, unless children have an innate ability to learn languages. Experiments that raise animals in human environments also show that compared to them, humans certainly have an innate ability to grasp and produce language. It is another refutation of the blank slate theory of humans, and another confirmation of the “nature x nurture” explanation of human behavior. (While we are on the subject, I would make a small addition to linguistics: a two-by-two matrix analysis of the four elements of language. Language is either input or output and it can be done fast or slow. Fast input is listening; slow input is reading. Fast output is speaking; slow output is writing. Learn the fast to go fast. Practice the slow to go fast well. As infants or beginners, we must learn fast to join the conversation at all, but we remain prone to errors for life until we concentrate on the slow.)
Needs to Adapt
Chomsky constructed a model that attempts to explain a perceived systemic bias of the mass media in terms of structural economic causes rather than a conspiracy of people. He argues the bias derives from five filters that all published news must pass through, which combine to systematically distort news coverage. The first filter, ownership, notes that most major media outlets are owned by large corporations. The second, funding, notes that the outlets derive the majority of their funding from advertising, not readers. Thus, since they are profit-oriented businesses selling a product (readers and audiences) to other businesses (advertisers), the model expects them to publish news that reflects the desires and values of those businesses. In addition, the news media are dependent on government institutions and major businesses with strong biases as sources (the third filter) for much of their information. Flak, the fourth filter, refers to the various pressure groups that attack the media for supposed bias. Norms, the fifth filter, refer to the common conceptions shared by those in the profession of journalism. The model describes how the media form a decentralized and non-conspiratorial but nonetheless very powerful propaganda system, that is able to mobilize an élite consensus, frame public debate within élite perspectives and at the same time give the appearance of democratic consent. While these biases do exist, this analysis misses the roles that competition and evolution play in the media industry. News outlets must compete with each other for consumers. When consumers are educated and seek the truth, unbiased news outlets will win and survive. When consumers don’t care, are simply looking for entertainment, or seek to confirm their biases, then surviving news outlets will reflect these interests. In our pluralistic world, we see all of these forms of news. But we need knowledge to survive! Citizens must seek it and demand it.
Gone Extinct
Jacques Derrida (1930-2004 CE) was a French philosopher born in Algeria who developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy. His academic influence in Continental Europe, South America, and all countries where continental philosophy is predominant, is enormous; becoming crucial in debates around ontology, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of language.
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Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Derrida considered that when encountering a classical philosophical opposition (body-soul, existing-being, passivity-activity, sensible-intelligible, receptivity-spontaneity, heteronomy-autonomy, empirical-transcendental, immanent-transcendent, local-global, femininity-masculinity, animal-Man, beast-sovereign, etc.), one never encounters peaceful coexistence of the two opposing concepts, but rather a violent hierarchy, where one of the two dominates over the other. In order to begin the deconstruction, one must break the link between the two opposing concepts. But, as a second step, Derrida added that one must do what is needed so that the two concepts stay separate and non-hierarchical. Not to synthesize the terms in opposition, but to mark their difference and eternal interplay. To mark the undecidable of all oppositions working across all texts in western culture, he created marks like: the pharmakon, that is neither remedy nor poison, neither good nor evil, neither the inside nor the outside, neither speech nor writing; the supplement, that is neither a plus nor a minus, neither an outside nor the complement of an inside, neither accident nor essence, etc.; the hymen that is neither confusion nor distinction, neither identity nor difference, neither consummation nor virginity, neither the veil nor unveiled, neither inside nor the outside, etc.; the gram, that is neither a signifier nor a signified, neither a sign nor a thing, neither presence nor an absence, neither a position nor a negation, etc.; and spacing, that is neither space nor time. Though Derrida was highly regarded by contemporary philosophers his work has been regarded by other Analytic philosophers, as pseudo-philosophy or sophistry. Searle, a frequent critic of Derrida, exemplified this view in his comments on deconstruction by saying: “...anyone who reads deconstructive texts with an open mind is likely to be struck by the same phenomena that initially surprised me: the low level of philosophical argumentation, the deliberate obscurantism of the prose, the wildly exaggerated claims, and the constant striving to give the appearance of profundity by making claims that seem paradoxical, but under analysis often turn out to be silly or trivial.” According to Foucault, Derrida practices the method of obscurantisme terroriste. He writes so obscurely you can't tell what he's saying, that's the obscurantism part, and then when you criticize him, he can always say, "You didn't understand me; you're an idiot.” That's the terrorism part. Derrida is no lover of wisdom; he is no philosopher. As defined above, he is deserving of spacing - neither space nor time.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Derrida considered that when encountering a classical philosophical opposition (body-soul, existing-being, passivity-activity, sensible-intelligible, receptivity-spontaneity, heteronomy-autonomy, empirical-transcendental, immanent-transcendent, local-global, femininity-masculinity, animal-Man, beast-sovereign, etc.), one never encounters peaceful coexistence of the two opposing concepts, but rather a violent hierarchy, where one of the two dominates over the other. In order to begin the deconstruction, one must break the link between the two opposing concepts. But, as a second step, Derrida added that one must do what is needed so that the two concepts stay separate and non-hierarchical. Not to synthesize the terms in opposition, but to mark their difference and eternal interplay. To mark the undecidable of all oppositions working across all texts in western culture, he created marks like: the pharmakon, that is neither remedy nor poison, neither good nor evil, neither the inside nor the outside, neither speech nor writing; the supplement, that is neither a plus nor a minus, neither an outside nor the complement of an inside, neither accident nor essence, etc.; the hymen that is neither confusion nor distinction, neither identity nor difference, neither consummation nor virginity, neither the veil nor unveiled, neither inside nor the outside, etc.; the gram, that is neither a signifier nor a signified, neither a sign nor a thing, neither presence nor an absence, neither a position nor a negation, etc.; and spacing, that is neither space nor time. Though Derrida was highly regarded by contemporary philosophers his work has been regarded by other Analytic philosophers, as pseudo-philosophy or sophistry. Searle, a frequent critic of Derrida, exemplified this view in his comments on deconstruction by saying: “...anyone who reads deconstructive texts with an open mind is likely to be struck by the same phenomena that initially surprised me: the low level of philosophical argumentation, the deliberate obscurantism of the prose, the wildly exaggerated claims, and the constant striving to give the appearance of profundity by making claims that seem paradoxical, but under analysis often turn out to be silly or trivial.” According to Foucault, Derrida practices the method of obscurantisme terroriste. He writes so obscurely you can't tell what he's saying, that's the obscurantism part, and then when you criticize him, he can always say, "You didn't understand me; you're an idiot.” That's the terrorism part. Derrida is no lover of wisdom; he is no philosopher. As defined above, he is deserving of spacing - neither space nor time.
Bernard-Henri Lévy (1948- CE) is French public intellectual, philosopher, journalist, and best-selling author.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Lévy became famous as the young founder of the New Philosophers school. This was a group of young intellectuals who were disenchanted with communist and socialist responses to the near-revolutionary upheavals in France of May 1968, and who articulated a fierce and uncompromising moral critique of Marxist and socialist dogmas. His books have been criticized for being neither journalism nor philosophy, but attempting to be both. More recently, in the essay De la guerre en philosophie (2010), Lévy was embarrassed when he used, as a central point of his refutation of Kant, the writings of French "philosopher" Jean-Baptiste Botul. Botul's writings are actually well known spoofs, and Botul himself is a fictional creation as is easily guessed from his thought system being called “botulism.” This is the state that famous philosophers have fallen to. It is a consequence of the atomization of knowledge in academia and the retreat of philosophy from the realm of the natural sciences. There may be fitter philosophers out there, and if so, I hope they come here to help me with my endeavor.
Survives
Needs to Adapt
Gone Extinct
Lévy became famous as the young founder of the New Philosophers school. This was a group of young intellectuals who were disenchanted with communist and socialist responses to the near-revolutionary upheavals in France of May 1968, and who articulated a fierce and uncompromising moral critique of Marxist and socialist dogmas. His books have been criticized for being neither journalism nor philosophy, but attempting to be both. More recently, in the essay De la guerre en philosophie (2010), Lévy was embarrassed when he used, as a central point of his refutation of Kant, the writings of French "philosopher" Jean-Baptiste Botul. Botul's writings are actually well known spoofs, and Botul himself is a fictional creation as is easily guessed from his thought system being called “botulism.” This is the state that famous philosophers have fallen to. It is a consequence of the atomization of knowledge in academia and the retreat of philosophy from the realm of the natural sciences. There may be fitter philosophers out there, and if so, I hope they come here to help me with my endeavor.
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© 2012 Ed Gibney