http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Analytic-philosophy-Wikipedia-the-free-encyclopedia-tp3235494p3241661.html
I really like this resolution.
Philosophers as Mathematical Scouts.
Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Not contempt. I'm puzzled. Hence the question:
> Why is it that philosophy does not build on prior work
> in the same way mathematics does?
>
> The answer Glen gave is quite satisfying: they're not expected to,
> they're on the frontier figuring out the right questions to be
> addressing. Math is the cleanup squad.
>
> This makes philosophy much easier to understand: just wait until they
> tickle your fancy, then apply formalism to make it last. Philosophy
> is not constructive. I think I knew that but hadn't put it into words.
>
> -- Owen
>
>
> On Jul 10, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> > Glen,
> >
> > What you have written below is beautifully said. I often feel that
> > Owen's
> > contempt for philosophy arises from bulldozing everything he finds
> > contemptible into a pile and calling it philosophy. I know so many
> > mathematicians who dip back into philosophy from time to time to
> > agree with
> > the proposition that nothing that not been formalized is worth talking
> > about.
> >
> > But I do think that you and I and others may have contributed to his
> > contempt by failing to articulate where we have made progress and, in
> > particular, where the arguments of one of us has improved or
> > corrected the
> > argument of the other. Or perhaps, even, to reveal problems that we
> > have
> > uncovered that we now find insoluble. It would be interesting to
> > make a
> > list of points of agreement between us on the subject of emergence.
> >
> > Owen is correct that Wittgenstein would not necessarily be our ally
> > in such
> > a project, since he seems to have come to regard philosophy as
> > nothing more
> > than a tool for its own destruction. .
> >
> > His aphorism, "That of which we cannot speak [clearly?] we should
> > pass over
> > in silence" cuts so many ways.
> >
> > Nick
> >
> > Nicholas S. Thompson
> > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
> > Clark University (
[hidden email])
> >
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College