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epguiyesterday at 6:34 PM2 repliesview on HN

Well “a lot” in volume sure, but that feels unnecessarily (maybe ignorantly) dismissive of the core corpus of the field.

Find me any field in which there isn’t “a lot” of BS.


Replies

lispertoday at 5:38 AM

There's a lot of BS in most fields. The problem with philosophy is that it has no criterion for separating the wheat from the chaff. All other fields have some kind of external forcing function. In science, its experimental data. In the arts, it's the ability to produce novelty or exhibit skill or attract an audience. In philosophy there is no external forcing function. The only thing that makes a great philosopher is other philosophers saying they are great philosophers.

There are definitely some non-BS philosophers, like Dan Dennett and Tim Maudlin. But really they are more like scientists than philosophers. In Maudlin's case, he's really a physicist, he just happens to work in a philosophy department.

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6510yesterday at 7:10 PM

If it is known that a lot of the marbles are pink there would have to be other colors. That means there is something to it!

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