I’m pleased to report that philosophy is not dead. It did not go the way of the Dodo with the death of Socrates, Nietzsche, or Foucault. We have living and breathing philosophers today, still writing and pondering the mishaps of our nutty world.
One of those living philosophers, Dr. Michael Huemer, points out in his book Knowledge, Reality and Value, that “Philosophy may be the only field of study in which a major part of the discourse is arguing about whether the things we’re studying even exist. Epistemologists are supposed to study knowledge, but we spend a good deal of our time talking about whether there is knowledge to begin with. Scientists don’t do that – e.g., biologists don’t spend their time arguing whether there is any life” (99).
That quote makes me smile. It’s why philosophers are weird, and at the same time fantastic. I love that there’s a group of people out there debating the origin of things, searching for proof, questioning existence, and most importantly questioning knowledge itself.
Until tomorrow, read slowly – take notes – apply the ideas.
-Eddy
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