[lit-ideas] Re: A Service Profession

Walter wrote


Perhaps Mike would wish to apprise us as to why he believes that this vast
quantitative multitude and qualitative array of questions all count as
"philosophical." 
.....


Imagine we were all free to define any question we raised as being a
"philosophical" question. Would the discipline of philosophy thereby be
enhanced or would it be debilitated?
I can't sort problems and questions into two well-defined groups: philosophical and non-philosophical, but I'll repeat here a principle of selection that I've set out a number of times on this list: if a problem can be solved or a question settled by appealing to the outcome of an experiment, solving an equation, by empirical observation, or by weighing or measuring, it isn't a philosophical problem, whatever else it is. This principle doesn't say what philosophical problems and questions are, only what they are not. Some would disagree with it. (Those funny old Logical Positivists used something like this principle to argue that there WERE no metaphysical or ethical 'problems.') 


Now ask the same question about cellular biology. Is there a difference here?
I'm not entirely clear what question we're meant to be asking. Is the point that no one would dream of 'defining' cellular biology any way one pleased? Maybe not; but the question 'what is a philosophical question or problem?' is itself a philosophical problem. It's a question within the philosophical enterprise itself. 'What is cellular biology?' is not a question in cellular biology.
'...it will hardly be possible to end controversies and impose silence on the sects, unless we resolve complex arguments into simple calculations, and substitute well-defined symbols for terms with vague and uncertain meanings...Once this has been done, however...disputes between philosophers will become as unnecessary as disputes between accountants. All we need to do is...take up our pens, or sit down at our abacus, and say to one another, _calculemus_.'
A free Mutton College T-shirt to the first person to identify the author of this quote (size XXXL only). 

Robert Paul
Reed College


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