The Relevance of Philosophy - a Systematic Answer to the Ultimate Annoying Question

The Relevance of Philosophy: a Systematic Answer to the Ultimate Annoying Question
https://CourseBoat.com

English | 2013 | ASIN: N/A | ISBN: N/A | EPUB | 2.7 MB

This booklet is meant as an extended response to the most common questions I get about philosophy: what is philosophy? What has philosophy ever done for humanity? What is philosophy good for, in practice? Who did I ever hear of that actually studied philosophy? What have philosophers ever written that is worth reading? How come I never hear about philosophy in the press? That way from now on I (and perhaps some of my colleagues and students) can simply respond with a link to the page were people can download the booklet and then devote our time to more interesting pursuits. But I know better than being that optimistic, of course.

I find it profoundly disturbing that I live in such an anti-intellectual society were people simply cannot fathom the value of philosophical inquiry and study, despite the availability of plenty of hard facts in favor of philosophy as a field. Even more disturbing is the fact that scoff and contempt often originate from within the academy itself, particularly from a number of my former colleagues in the sciences. Prominent biologists and physicists are on record dismissing philosophy as useless and dead, even though they have never bothered to read a technical paper in philosophy and therefore literally do not know what they are talking about.