Philosophy Makes No Progress, So What Is the Point of It?

Metaphilosophy 48 (3):284-295 (2017)
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Abstract

Philosophy makes no progress. It fails to do so in the way science and mathematics make progress. By “no progress” is meant that there is no successive advance of a well-established body of knowledge—no views are definitively established or definitively refuted. Yet philosophers often talk and act as if the subject makes progress, and that its point and value lies in its doing so, while in fact they also approach the subject in ways that clearly contradict any claim to progress. This article presents evidence for, and a theoretical explanation of, the view that philosophy makes no progress, concluding with an account of what philosophy is and what the point and value of it is. Philosophy should not be shy about being what it is, nor should it pretend to be what it is not. What it is should be reflected in philosophizing and the way it is taught.

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Citations of this work

Would Disagreement Undermine Progress?Finnur Dellsén, Insa Lawler & James Norton - 2023 - Journal of Philosophy 120 (3):139-172.
Scientism and Sentiments about Progress in Science and Academic Philosophy.Moti Mizrahi - 2023 - Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 12 (6):39-60.
Viewpoint Convergence as a Philosophical Defect.Grace Helton - forthcoming - In Sanford C. Goldberg & Mark Walker, Attitude in Philosophy. Oxford University Press.

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References found in this work

An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth.Bertrand Russell - 1940 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 18 (2):233-233.
Philosophy and the scientific image of man.Wilfrid Sellars - 1962 - In Robert Garland Colodny, Frontiers of science and philosophy. [Pittsburgh]: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 35-78.
Way to Wisdom.Walter Cerf, Karl Jaspers & Ralph Manheim - 1953 - Philosophical Review 62 (1):135.
Way to wisdom: an introduction to philosophy.Karl Jaspers - 2003 - New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

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