But philosophers are good at proposing answers—they all do that, usually just after identifying a flaw with an existing proposal.
What they’re not good at is convincing everyone else that their solution is the right one. (And presumably this is because multiple solutions are plausible. And maybe that’s because of the nature of proof—it’s impossible to prove something definitively, and disproving typically involves finding a counterexample, which may be hard to find.)
I’m not convinced philosophy is much less good at finding actual answers than say physics. It’s not as if physics is completely solved, or even particularly stable. Perhaps its most promising period of stability was specifically the laws of motion & gravity after Newton—though for less than two centuries. Physics seems better than philosophy at forming a temporary consensus; but that’s no use (and indeed is counterproductive) unless the solution is actually right.
Cf a rare example of consensus in philosophy: knowledge was ‘solved’ for 2300 years with the theory that it’s a ‘true justified belief’. Until Gettier thought of counterexamples.
But philosophers are good at proposing answers—they all do that, usually just after identifying a flaw with an existing proposal.
What they’re not good at is convincing everyone else that their solution is the right one. (And presumably this is because multiple solutions are plausible. And maybe that’s because of the nature of proof—it’s impossible to prove something definitively, and disproving typically involves finding a counterexample, which may be hard to find.)
I’m not convinced philosophy is much less good at finding actual answers than say physics. It’s not as if physics is completely solved, or even particularly stable. Perhaps its most promising period of stability was specifically the laws of motion & gravity after Newton—though for less than two centuries. Physics seems better than philosophy at forming a temporary consensus; but that’s no use (and indeed is counterproductive) unless the solution is actually right.
Cf a rare example of consensus in philosophy: knowledge was ‘solved’ for 2300 years with the theory that it’s a ‘true justified belief’. Until Gettier thought of counterexamples.