Citizens of Mathematics-Land carry the Rapier of Proof at all times, and citizens of Physics-Land carry the Six-Shooter of Experiment, and anyone committing an offense or faux-pas meets swift and merciless punishment from his peers. Philosophy-Land is a weapon-free country, whose citizens can be rude to each other without risk.
In Medicine-Land and Engineering-Land, great material rewards befall those whose ideas are new and true, whereas those who cheat or deceive themselves may cause catastrophes. But in Philosophy-Land, there is no reward for honesty or hard work.
And how can philosophy do something about its level of internal disagreement without having to apply the “kick out everyone who disagrees with Less Wrong” solution?
I wouldn’t expect progress in the field as a whole, I’d expect small subfields, departments, individual philosophers to try to solve those problems locally. And I don’t know enough about academic philosophy to tell whether that’s already the case; Experimental Philosophy may be a step in that direction. Maybe analytical philosophy was. Maybe the institutional incentives are such that any effort in the “right direction” tends to fail.
Citizens of Mathematics-Land carry the Rapier of Proof at all times, and citizens of Physics-Land carry the Six-Shooter of Experiment, and anyone committing an offense or faux-pas meets swift and merciless punishment from his peers. Philosophy-Land is a weapon-free country, whose citizens can be rude to each other without risk.
The worst thing is that the rapier does work in Philosophy-Land a lot of the time. It’s just that all the people who are especially vulnerable to said rapiers tend to emigrate. Those remaining don’t tend to have the courtesy to event grant touché when the rapier is sticking out of their chest, nor to adjust their technique.
Wow, that’s just a masterpiece metaphor! Saved this. I must also mention here, in addition to the Rapier and the Gun, one very famous razor, Occam’s Razor (and even a seemingly more advanced version of it, Solomon’s Lightsaber), from which it obviously follows that many philosophers also still cannot stand shaving (they themselves say that it’s just a straight razor, it’s too easy to cut yourself) and walk around with huge beards.
Citizens of Mathematics-Land carry the Rapier of Proof at all times, and citizens of Physics-Land carry the Six-Shooter of Experiment, and anyone committing an offense or faux-pas meets swift and merciless punishment from his peers. Philosophy-Land is a weapon-free country, whose citizens can be rude to each other without risk.
In Medicine-Land and Engineering-Land, great material rewards befall those whose ideas are new and true, whereas those who cheat or deceive themselves may cause catastrophes. But in Philosophy-Land, there is no reward for honesty or hard work.
I wouldn’t expect progress in the field as a whole, I’d expect small subfields, departments, individual philosophers to try to solve those problems locally. And I don’t know enough about academic philosophy to tell whether that’s already the case; Experimental Philosophy may be a step in that direction. Maybe analytical philosophy was. Maybe the institutional incentives are such that any effort in the “right direction” tends to fail.
The worst thing is that the rapier does work in Philosophy-Land a lot of the time. It’s just that all the people who are especially vulnerable to said rapiers tend to emigrate. Those remaining don’t tend to have the courtesy to event grant touché when the rapier is sticking out of their chest, nor to adjust their technique.
You give me the lolz.
Wow, that’s just a masterpiece metaphor! Saved this. I must also mention here, in addition to the Rapier and the Gun, one very famous razor, Occam’s Razor (and even a seemingly more advanced version of it, Solomon’s Lightsaber), from which it obviously follows that many philosophers also still cannot stand shaving (they themselves say that it’s just a straight razor, it’s too easy to cut yourself) and walk around with huge beards.