metaphilosophy
TagPhilosophy: More Empirical Than Ever
“In the early 1970s, fewer than 10% of articles cited any empirical sources. However, by the 2020s, this grew to over 50%.” (more…)
Philosophy Facts
Philosophy is a “fact-based discipline” that makes progress, says Bryan Frances, and to prove it he offers up “200 straightforward facts directly about philosophical matters that virtually all philosophers know and non-philosophers don’t know.” (more…)
An AI Analyzes Philosophers’ Discussion of AI
Last week I posted about PhilLit, a new AI research tool for philosophers that finds and summarizes philosophical writing. The post generated a lot of comments, which prompted one reader to run a little experiment. (more…)
Argument Isn’t Everything: On Creativity in Philosophy
“I don’t believe that arguing is usually the way we come up with good ideas. Argument might be an effective way of deciding which ideas to believe in. But adjudication is not creation. Safety inspections are important for deciding whether a building is sound. But safety inspections on their own don’t erect the building to be inspected.”
On Social Metaphysics
“What do we want the theory for?” (more…)
What’s in a Name? “Philosophy” in Non-European Traditions (guest post)
If certain cultures didn’t have the word “philosophy,” or a word that can directly be translated with “philosophy,” is it illegitimate, maybe culturally imperialist, to impose it on them? (more…)
Teachable and State of the Art
A philosophy professor has a question about teaching that I think will resonate with many readers. (more…)
A Manifesto for a Future Philosophy (guest post)
“This project of re-envisaging, looking at past ideas, and developing new ones to deal with our difficult situation will take the work of many people…” (more…)
A Taxonomy of “Philosophy Moves” (updated)
There is joy, and sometimes perverse satisfaction, in the work of philosophy—a rush that can be difficult to relate to those not already bitten by the bug. Philosophers find reward in deducing surprises by revealing unforeseen entailments, deriving implications of views one already holds, and delighting in the buzzy squirms that come with the resulting cognitive d..
Is Epistemology Guilty of “Institutional Neglect of Science”?
Standard Analytic Epistemology (SAE) is the name Michael Bishop (Florida State) and J.D. Trout (Illinois Institute of Technology) give to “the dominant approach to the theory of knowledge in the English-speaking world.” (more…)
What Aren’t We Philosophizing About, But Should?
“The singular magic of philosophy lies in its pairing of imaginative liberty with analytic clarity, but the field has come to privilege the latter at the expense of the former” (more…)
Ethical Evidence, Ethical Experience, and Shamelessness (guest post)
“A kind of science-envy is often visible in much of what analytic philosophers have had to say about the question of evidence in ethics… In some cases, however, what deprives us of the truth is not scientism, but other forms of prejudice.”
The Curious-ers?
There are the “View X-ers” and “the Curious-ers”.
Progress & New Ideas in Philosophy
“In what state do we find the research produced in academic analytic philosophy?… Things are better than they’ve been for eighty years or so.” (more…)
Metaphilosophy Project Workshop Series
A project on metaphilosophy led by Boran Berčić (University of Rijeka) has won a sizable grant from the Croatian Science Foundation and is putting on a series of online workshops. (more…)
Is There A Sound Philosophical Method? (guest post)
“Is there a sound method for constructing and assessing philosophical theories—one capable of generating theories, in diverse subfields, that deliver philosophy’s ultimate goal?” (more…)
In Which Areas of Philosophy Should We Expect Faster Progress?
On what we can call the answers model of philosophy, the primary aim of philosophy is to learn philosophical truths, and a primary form of philosophical progress is learning true answers to “the big questions of philosophy,” as David Chalmers (NYU) puts it. (more…)
Philosophy Is Not In Charge of Itself (and other points worth remembering when writing about the state of philosophy)
Are you thinking about writing about the state of philosophy today?
Team Philosophy (guest post)
“There are clear advantages to team science… Would this model work for philosophy?” (more…)
Philosophy as Sustaining Faith in our Cognitive Agency
“What are the practices that sustain our faith in ourselves as the agents of our thinking?” (more…)
Philosophy as Art
“I view the philosophical essay as an art form whose medium is ideas.” (more…)
Does Studying Philosophy Develop Special Skills That Improve One’s Intuitions?
A new study suggests the answer to that question is “no.” Rather, according to the study’s authors, what explains why the intuitions about particular cases of those who’ve studied philosophy differ from others is simply that they’ve been taught the standard interpretation of those specific cases, while the others have not. (more…)
What’s the Point of Philosophy (as an academic discipline)?
I’m curious about what academic philosophers take to be the point of academic philosophy. Just a little question, that’s all. (more…)
Immoral Moral Philosophers
In a recent post at The Splintered Mind, Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) asks whether it matters “if ethicists walk the walk.” (more…)
Philosophical Exceptionalism & Philosophical Writing
“I like to think that academic fields often have a proprietary emotion. In the case of philosophy, the proprietary emotion is embarrassment.” (more…)
The Social Turn in Analytic Philosophy: Promises and Perils (guest post)
“The linguistic turn is over. We partied hard, got hungover, and now we’re trying to live as respectable adults… Today, a new revolution is brewing. Analytic philosophy is in the midst of a social turn.” (more…)
Philosophy as Glial Cell (guest post)
Glial cell? “Commonly described as the ‘glue’ that holds the nervous system together, they’re better thought of as infrastructure, the ductwork and insulation that give heft to comparatively sparse neurons. But even this metaphor turns out to be incomplete…”
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A Plea for Synthetic Philosophy (guest post)
“There need not be strict disciplinary boundaries between philosophy and other disciplines.” (more…)