Philosophy--What's the Use?

By David Brown | Posted at 15:51:42

Philosophy—What's the Use? (NY Times 1-25-12)

The perennial objection to any appeal to philosophy is that philosophers themselves disagree among themselves about everything, so that there is no body of philosophical knowledge on which non-philosophers can rely. It's true that philosophers do not agree on answers to the “big questions” like God's existence, free will, the nature of moral obligation and so on. But they do agree about many logical interconnections and conceptual distinctions that are essential for thinking clearly about the big questions.