Matt_Simpson comments on Schools Proliferating Without Evidence - Less Wrong

40 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 March 2009 06:43AM

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Comment author: Matt_Simpson 16 March 2009 04:25:02PM 3 points [-]

Is your complaint that this is too many to have considered, or that the question isn't completely settled yet?

My complaint is that little progress has been made over many years. There are three general ways to answer the question, sure. But each general answer is really an umbrella term covering a large number of answers. Some sects are similar to others, but they are still different sects.

I know many philosophers who would be surprised by this assertion - I was under the impression the Empiricists pretty much won. In Ethics, particularly, moral observation is now a standard piece of the toolkit.

In retrospect, my experience is probably colored by the small school I go to. From what I can tell, there are still rather large, if minority, groups of philosophers who disagree with the settled answer on many questions.