I was wondering this morning as I walked, Does anyone ever prove anything in Philosophy? Oh. I know we prove things all the time in
Logic -- All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, Therefore Socrates is
mortal. But what about Philosophy per se [as we like to say in the trade]?
Then it occurred to me that every so often a philosopher
will disprove something. My favorite examples, not surprisingly, are
Hume and Kant who, between them, brought Rational Theology to a screeching halt
by decisively refuting every one of the going proofs for the existence of God.
Indeed, I flatter myself that in my small way, I refuted the
standard arguments for the moral legitimacy of the majoritarian democratic
state. Not quite God, to be sure, but
not chopped chicken liver either.
I invite my readers to offer other examples of things
philosophers have proved or disproved.
5 comments:
One example of the top of my head: Russel's paradox shooting down Frege's attempt to reduce mathematics to logic. Though you may want to throw that one under logic as distinguished from the rest of philosophy.
That aside, there are probably many similar cases. As one, Berkeley did a pretty good job of poking serious holes in the primary/secondary quality distinction, at least as it was understood then. The thing is, I can (unsurprisingly) think of philosophers who would dispute the examples you give, and probably most others. In cases like this, philosophers who want to defend their positions will always try to tweak just enough, and it gets hard to say if it's a new view, or just the old one in zombified form.
I also thought that Plato was the master as disproving things. Every class I took on Plato, and every time I taught Plato, people always complained "why can't he just tell us what justice/beauty/goodness is! he never gives us a proof." And that's not false, but he does a great job of showing us why we need not explore dozens of other dead ends!
This is why I've never sustained interest in philosophy, because so much of it is disproving things I never was inclined to believe in the first place. I'm game for a good argument but not if I have to understand a bunch of obscure Christian philosophy first. However, I am grateful philosophers are out there hauling away the trash.
For what it is worth, I have never really approached philosophy as a means with which to prove or disprove something. Rather, I view and use philosophy as a way (attitude?) to think about things in a more careful and thoroughgoing manner. In this sense, philosophy can indeed help us to both interpret and change the world.
In addition to the examples mentioned I've always been a big fan of Euthyphro arguments, both the original (are actions good because God commanded them or did God command them because they're good) and later derivatives. (Why is Wheaties the breakfast of champions? Because champions eat it or because eating it makes champions? Do many people admire the Mona Lisa because it's great art or is it great art because many people admire it? etc.)
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