Are Certain Philosophical Topics not worth the Effort?
Are Certain Philosophical Problems not Worth the Effort?
I think so.
We have a finite amount of time in our lives to discuss and mull over whatever problems we're working out in our heads. With that reality in mind, I think it's important to carefully decide what philosophical topics we choose to explore. For me, the standard, run of the mill metaphysics questions that most lay people associate with philosophy in general, like “What’s the ultimate purpose of the universe?”, “What’s the meaning of life?”, strike me as being too abstract and well though over to warrant full investigation by contemporary philosophers. First of all, I think different answers are already provided by religion, social custom, or by classical and ancient philosophers like Plato or Confucius. There is such a wide diversity of opinion a depth of literature that I think most anyone can pick an answer to one of the aforementioned questions and have that agree with his or her disposition for the most part. These philosophical viewpoints have sometimes been around for a thousand years or more and thus have a wealth of commentary and criticism already attached to them. I challenge anyone to come up with a novel refutation of Judeo-Christianity or Epicureanism. An attempt to complete that task would definitely suit an entry level philosophy student as a though exercise, but I doubt it could be considered original thought.
I’m not trying to advocate some sort of Neo-Positivism, where no question is worth asking unless it is empirically verifiable. I don’t think Philosophy should or could be a hard science like Physics, but I do think that philosophers, amateur and professional, should devote important time to specific philosophical questions that affect our lives everyday. A great example would be, “Do natural rights extend to non-human or even inanimate things?” That is because individual interpretations of those questions lie at the heart of current environmental, animal rights, and historical preservation movements. Movements that have had enormous influence on how human beings lived in the last century, and probably will become even more important in the next. It is therefore possible for a philosopher to make substantive impact on the world at large by thinking about this question and trying to answer
I think so.
We have a finite amount of time in our lives to discuss and mull over whatever problems we're working out in our heads. With that reality in mind, I think it's important to carefully decide what philosophical topics we choose to explore. For me, the standard, run of the mill metaphysics questions that most lay people associate with philosophy in general, like “What’s the ultimate purpose of the universe?”, “What’s the meaning of life?”, strike me as being too abstract and well though over to warrant full investigation by contemporary philosophers. First of all, I think different answers are already provided by religion, social custom, or by classical and ancient philosophers like Plato or Confucius. There is such a wide diversity of opinion a depth of literature that I think most anyone can pick an answer to one of the aforementioned questions and have that agree with his or her disposition for the most part. These philosophical viewpoints have sometimes been around for a thousand years or more and thus have a wealth of commentary and criticism already attached to them. I challenge anyone to come up with a novel refutation of Judeo-Christianity or Epicureanism. An attempt to complete that task would definitely suit an entry level philosophy student as a though exercise, but I doubt it could be considered original thought.
I’m not trying to advocate some sort of Neo-Positivism, where no question is worth asking unless it is empirically verifiable. I don’t think Philosophy should or could be a hard science like Physics, but I do think that philosophers, amateur and professional, should devote important time to specific philosophical questions that affect our lives everyday. A great example would be, “Do natural rights extend to non-human or even inanimate things?” That is because individual interpretations of those questions lie at the heart of current environmental, animal rights, and historical preservation movements. Movements that have had enormous influence on how human beings lived in the last century, and probably will become even more important in the next. It is therefore possible for a philosopher to make substantive impact on the world at large by thinking about this question and trying to answer