Philosophy Now Forum

I have long pondered this philosophical question/case....
why hasn't philosophy gained as much ground as science?

Philosophy seems to be spinning its wheels in how it answers
certain questions.... the exact same questions that Socrates
and Plato asked 2500 years ago... we haven't gotten anywhere
in our answers since then, and so we must wonder, why not?

let us first ask this, under what circumstances or situations
does philosophy or even science expand it understanding?

For example, philosophy (and science) made progress in the years after
1500.... which is not so coincidently the years of change and turbulence
within the states of Europe...... we can connect the changes within
philosophy and science to the overall changes within the state/societies
and institutions of Europe during these years....the age of exploration
that was the age of Columbus and Magellan also was the age of
new science and philosophy...

there is a connection between the two... man/human beings were
expanding outside of their comfort zone, their beliefs.... they were
growing large and thinking large and acting large...they were moving
past themselves... and that is what progress means.... going beyond
yourself.... these human beings weren't old people for old people
don't think or act large... they were young people who moved
what it means to be human by their thinking, doing and feeling....

the rise of science and technology and philosophy is driven by
pushing the boundaries of what it means to be human...these were not
conservative/passive ages... these were aggressive, positive ages...
the rise of Protestanism is just another sign of the new age of progress...
a new faith for a new way of thinking and feeling and acting....
if you think of these times as independent and separate events,
you miss what the modern times are all about.... going forward is
an young person action, going backwards is an old person action...
progress comes from those who move forward.. the new way of
thinking in science and philosophy and technology comes from
positive, forward thinking...the very idea of progress is an forward
thinking idea... and Europe was very engaged in the idea of progress
since the Rennaissance times... and this idea, notion of progress
continued until the First World War.... human beings were progressing
in virtually every way was the mantra of human beings all over Europe
for over 400 years...even if it didn't even look like it, human beings
were progressing into the future..... and that belief was unchallenged
for centuries...it was the bread and butter belief of England for centuries...
moving from barbarianism to civilization... and today?
we no longer believe in progress and this movement forward...
it has been killed by the old and the conservatives...

the Two World Wars and the Holocaust helped kill our notion
of progress that drove Europeans for centuries...
(note that Nazism is a conservative, regressive, backward
looking ism/ideology... the past is better than the present or future)

and we see this in our modern conservative movement... a return to
the past, to past ideas and way of life is the way out of our current
"morass"... which to me means, they have failed to understand
our current times and what it means to be human....

we can only travel forward, toward the future.. and conservativism,
the old can only travel backwards, toward the past... the path to failure lies
in seeking the past.....to revive the past is to damage the future and our
possibilities there....

as long as conservatism seems to be the main choice within society, the
state, we shall be stuck and unable to move forward, into the future...
for us to move forward means we take the idea of progress and holds it to be
true.... as a way of life.... into the future and we can only go into the future,
with the belief of progress and the possibility of tomorrow being better
than today...otherwise we are trapped in the past....

a better tomorrow is only possible if we hold that to be true.....
if we believe that the past is better than today or tomorrow, we
are trapped in the past.... where we will stagnate and finally die
if we no longer believe in the future...we die as a culture, die as a civilization,
die as a people.....

it is the future that gives us hope, not the past and its only
in working for the future that offers us a chance to save ourselves...
if we only work to revive or maintain the past, we have already lost...

Kropotkin

so why is our times, our present situation seem to be so,
iffy, so dubious, problematic? Because so many people
are so focused on the past and in holding to the past, that
going into the future become impossible... too many people
are engaged into the past and not enough are engaged into
seeking what is ahead of us, in seeking to make progress
and explore the future...
the ''American dream" has died because it was killed by those
who deemed the past as more important than the future...
the entire American dream is predicated on seeking progress,
not on holding to what we already have, but in seeking to make
better, or improve, to progress what we have.....

the old people thinking of conservatives is holding America hostage
to the past... instead of thinking about how do we go into the future.
the old/conservatives hold onto how to recreate the past, make
American "better" by returning to prayer in schools is one such answer,
that is past dependent, and not future based...to return to god will
recreate our glory years and that is the path to failure...for the future
requires us to find new ways, to seek out other paths into the future...
to make progress requires us to move forward, not to hold onto
the past....to seek our redemption in old ideas like god and religions...

old people/conservatives thinking binds us to the past, hold us hostage
to what was, when we need to engaged in what will be, what is
possible for us tomorrow, not in what was possible in the past....
any answers we seek lie in searching out what it means to be human,
tomorrow, not in yesterday....

Kropotkin

so let us take a practical approach to this "case"...

take business for example, the old fashion idea is to
make profits at all costs.. as in my factory lite job,
to work employees to death if need be...for workers
are, as every boss I have ever had has told me,
"you are expendable" management in every company
considers every single worker within that company,
to be expendable for the greater goal of profits...
which is nihilism, BTW... putting profits, money
before human beings and their values....

anyway, let us look at how companies make profits, which
is, by their very mission statements, to make money/profits,
and today, the easiest way to make money, to make profit,
isn't by working harder or seeking innovation, nah,
it is by bribing congress into giving companies big tax cuts...why
work harder when you can simply bribe your way into huge
profits..... that is the American way....

by holding onto the old fashion goal of making money, to increase
profits, you become beholden to making money in the easiest
way possible... have you ever wondered why modern American
companies don't seem to be very efficient or engage in being
innovative? they don't have to, to make money...another tax cut
will do the trick...
and the only goal of the management of any company is
to make massive amounts of money, any way they can,
and if tax cuts gets them large scale bonuses, why not?

to innovate or to become more efficient, take energy and time,
why bother when you can just bribe public officials into getting
you massive amounts of profits by a tax cut or two...

that is how, in one particular instance, how a focus on
past idea's fails us into moving forward or making
progress.....

instances abound how are focus on the past becomes
a path for failure....to think about redeeming people
by the failed path of a return to religion is just another
example of seeking possibilities in the past...
a path into failure...

Kropotkin