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lukeprog comments on LW Philosophers versus Analytics - Less Wrong Discussion

38 Post author: potato 28 November 2011 03:40PM

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Comment author: lukeprog 28 November 2011 08:43:04PM -1 points [-]

Or analytic philosophy itself.

Comment author: potato 28 November 2011 11:03:13PM *  5 points [-]

Really, you think training in analytic philosophy does as much to philosophically mature a student as being sequenced? It always seemed to me that it is so hard to find analytic wins, and you have to crawl and bite through so much poop before you find it, that you might be better off just reading LW and not getting into (emotionally or ascetically) those (often fascinating) mistakes. Analytic philosophy may be as reliably transmittable as LW, but I don't think of it as well oiled. Or at least I think you would have to have a friend who has already looked through the poo to guide you to the win, in order to not get caught up in cool mistakes.

(edit): If I had to design the curriculum for philosophy students, I would reverse it. I would start with the clearest, most modern, and best reasoned positions, and then after that introduce the students to the history of mucky mess ups that lead to them. But why we would introduce students to philosophy by using the muckiest most primitive philosophy as an introduction, I could not imagine.

Comment author: lukeprog 29 November 2011 12:01:16AM 5 points [-]

I meant only that analytic philosophy is a "self-updating reliably transmittable well oiled machine." Within 30 years it took over most of philosophy in the English-speaking in world, and much of philosophy elsewhere, and in some ways it remains the dominant school, if the analytic-continental distinction works at all anymore.