Peterdjones comments on Train Philosophers with Pearl and Kahneman, not Plato and Kant - Less Wrong

65 Post author: lukeprog 06 December 2012 12:42AM

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Comment author: Peterdjones 04 December 2012 12:47:44PM *  1 point [-]

Aaagh!

Seconded.

Plato and Kant would be a better foundation than Pearl and Kahneman.

They're a necessary foundation, because you can't understand Kripke without understanding Kant (etc). That has nothing to do with reverence.

Comment author: BerryPick6 04 December 2012 02:13:33PM -2 points [-]

Presumably, then, you would study Kant in the early stages of whatever course you are devoting to Kripke's work. Other than his work in Political Philosophy (I'm well aware he's a prerequisite for that,) what other foundational purpose does studying Kant serve?

Comment author: RobbBB 04 December 2012 08:39:18PM *  19 points [-]

I think you'd have an easier time justifying the thesis 'Kant was wrong about everything' than 'Kant was not super-super-crazy-influential.' Consider:

Kant ⇒ Schopenhauer ⇒ Nietzsche ⇒ all the postmodernists and relativists

Kant ⇒ Schopenhauer ⇒ Wittgenstein ⇒ most of the positivists

Kant ⇒ Schopenhauer ⇒ Nietzsche ⇒ Freud

Kant ⇒ Fichte ⇒ Hegel ⇒ Marx

Kant ⇒ von Mises ⇒ the less fun libertarians

My conclusion, by Six-Degrees-of-Hitler/Stalin/RonPaul ratiocination, is that Kant is directly and personally responsible for every atrocity of the 20th century.

Comment author: Peterdjones 08 December 2012 05:30:44PM 2 points [-]
Comment author: RobbBB 08 December 2012 07:50:07PM 5 points [-]

Even a broken Ayn Rand is right twice a day.

Comment author: BerryPick6 08 December 2012 07:54:27PM 1 point [-]

Twice a day may be a bit too often. Let's settle on some lower rate, shall we?

Comment author: BerryPick6 04 December 2012 08:41:28PM 2 points [-]

I was just mulling over that Peter may have been right in this conversation, and then this beauty of a comment drops. You should put this on a poster or a t-shirt, or something! :)

Comment author: id10t 08 December 2012 05:08:25PM 1 point [-]

This was quite possibly the best interwebs post I've seen in a long time ... if you don't start making these t-shirts, I will!

Comment author: Peterdjones 04 December 2012 02:37:14PM 1 point [-]

I didn't say Kant was only relevant to Kripke. He was hugely influential.

Comment author: BerryPick6 04 December 2012 02:44:56PM 1 point [-]

Re-reading my post, it wasn't clear that I was asking you for other examples, so I apologize for that. Would you mind giving other examples of relevant ideas for which a prior knowledge of Kant is absolutely necessary?

Comment author: Peterdjones 04 December 2012 03:36:16PM -1 points [-]

Eg. the whole of German Idealism. Believe it or not, philosophy educators have a reasonably good idea of what they are doing.

Comment author: Desrtopa 04 December 2012 03:38:48PM 5 points [-]

Having dropped a double major in philosophy, I'm inclined to take the side of "not."

Comment author: Peterdjones 04 December 2012 03:47:07PM 4 points [-]

Having read a lot of bad attempted philosophy by scientists, I'm inclined to think phil. doens't need replacement by, or oversight from, science

Comment author: thomblake 04 December 2012 05:40:47PM 1 point [-]

Having read a lot of bad attempted philosophy by scientists

But most of the really brilliant philosophers have come from a scientific background! For example, I don't think 20th-century philosophy would have accomplished nearly as much without Wittgenstein. And Aristotle wouldn't have gotten anywhere if he hadn't spent all those years cataloging plants and animals.

Comment author: BerryPick6 04 December 2012 03:43:07PM 2 points [-]

German Idealism

Is a fairly self contained subject. You could go through a degree or two without ever touching upon it unless you had to study Hegel for unrelated reasons. So, I don't see any reason he wouldn't be taught during the course or in a course of his own which is a prerequisite for the GI course, rather than in Phil 101.

Believe it or not, philosophy educators have a reasonably good idea of what they are doing.

Some do, some don't, generalizing is fun.