Topics Philosophy

Question After looking at the list of categories found on the left hand side of this site a question came to me. What subject if any has been either vaguely or not at all covered in the field of philosophy? Is there any possibility for a breakthrough in some uncovered field that doesn't follow from some previous philosopher's argument or have all subjects relevant to philosophy been already covered? If there is no such subject, or it is just too abstract to consider what has not been considered, could you please point out some of the Cutting Edge or "hot topics" that are currently setting the philosophy world ablaze. Thank you for any consideration.

Accepted:
April 5, 2007

Comments

To respond to your last question first, what people think are cutting edge depends on who they are, of course, and so there could be no general answer.

As to whether there are issues that have not yet been considered by philosophers, and should be, I am sure there are, and I have noticed during the last few decades that more and more people are working in areas which would previously have been regarded as obscure such as philosophy and economics, philosophy and business, and so on. It has to be said, though, that we as a group tend to come back to familiar controversies and debates since that is where our bread and butter is to be found, and being in a slightly unusual area is not generally that good in career terms.

It is impossible to predict the occurrence of a breakthrough argument, by the nature of things, until it occurs. They do take place in philosophy, but the conservatism of the profession means that many refuse to accept them and continue to operate in the old way, and from the point of view of human psychology it is unlikely that a philosopher is going to say that everything he or she based their work on in the past they now realise is wrong. We tend to continue with our familiar positions and defend them whatever. After all, we can always say that we don't think much of the new argument that undermines our approach.