I think, therefore I am…busy.Going into this subject, one of my main beefs about philosophy is the idea that it is a superior or equal tool to be used in approximating fact. This is similarly the problem with religious apologetics or more broadly, believers who see philosophy as a tool equally adequate to scientific methodology. This seems to be a blatantly false opinion yet they persist, having led me to look at other causative factors such as believence and cognitive bias. If I am correct then philosophy is yet another gap into which believers have retreated, one that is nearly unfalsifiable and contains many (endless?) hiding places—different explanations and interpretations that allow them both defense and self-convincing offense. One is never as capable of repeating falsehood as when they believe it themselves. As an intellectual species I hope we are better than this. Perhaps this is just my frustration seeing factual back-stepping in society and too much of our leadership. Long view, we have made great progress and there is good reason to believe that will continue, short of global thermonuclear war or a large honed-in asteroid. Perhaps this is one of the side effects of looking beyond ones self, beyond the narrow view of ones lifetime or narrower view of ones immediate needs. (Today is the Super Bowl after all and we are out of Doritos.) This post is a marker, my before baseline. Perhaps my first sentences above are entirely incorrect. But I want to be correct so am open, always, to new information and changes of opinion. Looking forward to seeing what my position is a year from now, two years, five. So let’s do this, Philosophy. Enough of the overview books, abbreviated biographies, YouTube definitions and nonprofessional debates. Time to do this right. First up, epistemology. Bring it.
