Topics Philosophy

Question Does the amount of suffering in the world that is caused by man's misbehavior towards each other indicative of a failure of philosophy to create meaningful solutions or rather an ignorance of philosophy?

Accepted:
June 7, 2013

Comments

I'd say neither.

Ideas can inspire, but knowing philosophy doesn't mean you won't be cruel. Theoretical understanding need not change our dispositions and sympathies. The extent to which it does is an empirical matter, but I'd guess that a sociopath could also be a skilled and brilliant philosopher. Even more important, people don't need philosophy to treat each other well. Whether someone is kind decent, and whether they understand Kant are two quite different questions.

There's a related point: even if we have the right theory of goodness and justice, the question of how to get people to be good and just isn't one that philosophy can answer. It depends on all sorts of difficult factual questions that call for psychology, sociology, economics and a great many other kinds of empirical knowledge.

In short: on one end of the question, I fear you may be overestimating the need for philosophy; on the other end, I fear you may be overestimating its power.

That said, there's a problem I haven't mentioned and that I think is worth worrying about: the power of bad ideas. People in the grip of a bad theory can do a lot of harm even with the best of intentions. Philosophy has produced its share of bad theories but it's also helped to puncture many. And so I don't want to give the impression that philosophy has nothing to contribute; it's just that we need to have appropriate expectations

Question Does the amount of suffering in the world that is caused by man's misbehavior towards each other indicative of a failure of philosophy to create meaningful solutions or rather an ignorance of philosophy? Accepted:June 7, 2013

Question Does the amount of suffering in the world that is caused by man's misbehavior towards each other indicative of a failure of philosophy to create meaningful solutions or rather an ignorance of philosophy?

Accepted:
June 7, 2013