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Is there any question a philosopher can't answer or does the philosopher have to take an extremist view?

PhilX

Philosophy Explorer wrote:Is there any question a philosopher can't answer or does the philosopher have to take an extremist view?

PhilX

Are the two clauses of your sentence supposed to represent; 1) two alternatives, or 2) two separate questions?

If 1) then the question does not represent mutually exclusive choices.
If 2) then the answer to the first clause is yes obvioulsy, and the second is a matter of perspective, and value laden.

Can you think of such a question? And is the question a valid one?

Philosophy Explorer wrote:Is there any question a philosopher can't answer

No. There are plenty of questions that plenty of philosophers can't answer to my satisfaction, but they all seem pretty satisfied with their own answers to whichever questions they chose to address.

or does the philosopher have to take an extremist view?

Why would they have to do that? They can if they want to, but anyone can prevaricate, equivocate, circumlocute, self-contradict and dither without necessarily taking a position at all.

Since nothing philosophers come up with is ever subjected to rigorous controlled testing, there are no wrong answers - only improper applications.

Philosophy Explorer wrote:Is there any question a philosopher can't answer or does the philosopher have to take an extremist view?

PhilX

...as compared to the ones he thinks he can answer because in that case, NO, there is no question a philosopher can't answer.

I suppose he can't answer questions that have no answer.