the state of philosophy today...

[Walker]

OK, now that I had breakfast, maybe I'll be slightly more
with it.. one can only hope....

so, what exactly is the state of philosophy today?

“Fuck off with your pig headed motor mouth pie hole CRAP….and go spew your pointless opinions down the toilet …your twatty opinions are always toxic …just like you, you disgusting vile person.”
- DAM

The first quote is an honest question.

The second quote is an example of the state of philosophy ... in the state of PN Forum, from today.

From this, you can conceptualize a principle.

[Peter Kropotkin]

Peter Kropotkin" OK, now that I had breakfast, maybe I'll be slightly more
with it.. one can only hope....

so, what exactly is the state of philosophy today?

WALKER: The first quote is an honest question.

K: um, thanks, but notice, I still haven't gotten an answer, every
time I try to pin someone down with specifics, they won't say..
One has said, that philosophy is alive well, but how is that so?
Who is doing what in philosophy today? I don't see any great or mildly
decent philosophers today.. for me, right now, philosophy is in a dead zone..
and dead periods like this happen in philosophy...

For example, between Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, a period of about 20 years,
roughly, there were no "great" philosophers.. there were great philosophers
before and after, but not during that period.. and granted those who came afterwards,
were at this time, from roughly 1855 to 1875, were gathering their "tools"
in preparation for the philosophy to come afterwards... and that well may be
right now, today, people are gathering their "tools" in preparation for
the next great age of philosophy, the next great philosopher...

To peak into the past, the Greeks were great philosophers,
philosophers were a dime a dozen, and yet the Roman didn't have
any great philosophers.. It was truly the silver age of philosophy..

and in the early Middle ages, outside of Boethius, who was a great philosopher,
from him to St. Thomas Aquinas? One might post Peter Abelard, or perhaps
ST. Anselm? But that is still over 400 years from Boethius to Abelard....

Now the great philosophy being done wasn't in the west,
it was being done in the Arabic countries during this time period,
from Ibn Sina to Averroes to Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali to Rumi....

and perhaps that is the case today? That the great philosophy is being done
outside of the west?.. but we know, historically, that philosophers do not
and cannot operate/function in the political state known as dictatorships..
that there were no great philosophers in the Soviet Union or NAZI Germany,
or communist China...or any other dictatorships... I can't think of a single
philosopher who thrived or succeeded during a political dictatorship..
and that leads us to conclude that for philosophy to "grow" and thrive,
it depends on mild political conditions, but why don't we have any
"great" philosophers today? I submit that the tyranny we face today isn't
political, but economic.. the tyranny we face is from corporations
and big business... Today, the U.S government is a subdivision of MOBIL/EXXON,
and other big corporations.. tyranny isn't always political, at one point,
tyranny was religion, and then it was government, and today its
economic... we have to shift our views from thinking the threat comes
from the government and it doesn't, not today..

So, we are faced with an economic tyranny, that stifles dissent
and destroys those who oppose big business and that which drives
big business, the acquisition of wealth and profits.. for that is the
sole goal of capitalism and big business..

so until we destroy capitalism, we won't have any great philosophers..

or as Hegel said,

"The owl of Minerva spreads it wings only with the coming of the dusk"..

So our wisdom, the coming revolution in philosophy will come, some day,
but just not today...

Kropotkin

[Peter Kropotkin]

I notice every line I just wrote was underlined, I have no idea
how I did that or how to correct it... sorry...

Kropotkin

[commonsense]

Ok, to continue on...

What are the current problems of philosophy? Philosophy historically
has been driven by a quest to solve certain problems... after the
Scientific revolution after 1550, the philosophical problem was
epistemological... which as we know is...

Epistemology: the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to
its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation
of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.

Thus after the Scientific revolution, we had, from Descartes to Kant,
an investigation into what was knowledge... Philosophy
was an investigation into epistemology... that was the problem
to be solved after the Scientific revolution...

And after Kant "solved" this problem, philosophy was able to move
into other directions.. to solve other problems as it were...

So, once again, what is the problem that modern philosophy is trying to solve?
Frankly, hell if I know... I am not even sure modern philosophers can tell
us what the problem/problems philosophy is supposed to solve today...
and that question of "what problem is philosophy supposed to solve"
is of great importance to philosophy right now....
for can anyone here tell me, what are the modern "problems of
philosophy" we are actually trying to solve?

and therein lies one of the problems with modern philosophy,
it has no idea what problem/problems it is supposed to engage with
or solve? What is the problem of philosophy today?

and until we can answer that question, it doesn't even matter what
type of or engagement with philosophy we have, if we can't tell
what problems we are trying to solve, we can't even ask the right
questions....so, tell me, what are the problems of philosophy today?

Kropotkin

McThinks answered your question with a list of those currently unresolved problems.

From what you’ve written in this thread, I gather that you didn’t mean to ask the question that you asked. Perhaps you would’ve done well to rephrase it.

e.g., What is the main problem facing philosophy today?

[Walker]

I notice every line I just wrote was underlined, I have no idea
how I did that or how to correct it... sorry...

Kropotkin

It obviously signifies importance but it's out of your hands, because it's out of your hands, I'll read it later when fresh, so to speak. No promises after that, if I remember that.

[Walker]

K: um, thanks, but notice, I still haven't gotten an answer...

Despite all the moaning about the good old days where there were real thinkers on the forum, I think this forum offers a diversity by intelligent people who have the freedom to express as they must. I like that. So, your angle, your portal into this particular aspect of philosophy, is a history of philosophy, and your question is why the drought in philosophy.

As far as the history goes, I’ll pass.

As for the drought, I think three possible reasons, all or in various combinations.

One: the primary directive of education these days is indoctrination, not truth, not how to think. This approach has served to condition generations into how to think within the context of an accepted and condoned world view, and it becomes entrenched in the brain circuitry. The accepted world view is reinforced by approval from the educators.

Two: technology provides lots of distractions that take up time and turn young minds to jelly. So, it’s much easier to pick a desired lifestyle and think the thoughts, believe in the path, that will make that desired lifestyle happen. This doesn’t take a whole lot of philosophizing to make happen.

Three: In the secular world, God is dead and the science is settled. Politicians tell the most outlandish, transparent lies and they get dutifully repeated, as if true. They get rewarded. They are famous, and even admired. The little children see this, and see the easy path to riches in the kingdom of mammon.

The question is, in your way of thinking, what defines a great philosopher? Is it a person who thinks what has not been thought before? Or, is a great philosopher one with a new, logically airtight presentation of the known? Or, is a great philosopher great because a consensus by the right people nod their heads sagely in agreement, a form of peer review? Or, is a philosopher great when the universities make his (or I guess, her) readings a requirement? Or, something else?