Metaphysical quackery ? I do get your point. It is entirely valid. But... The medieval philosophers also gave us the fundamentals of logic & Whole sets of values issues that would eventually need to be resolved to good effect even if their solutions were not optimal. Examples include psychology, the rudiments of sociology eventually developed from those beginnings by Vico, and the whole field of communications ( language and its uses, word nuances, techniques for persuasion, and so forth ). Yet, I also agree that philosophy has taken a really wrong turn in rejecting any kind of weltanschauung as a proper subject for philosophy any more and , instead, mostly now focuses on grammar or close analysis of propositions or ever more microscopic logical implications. Add to the list of great philosophers : Samuel Clemens, Groucho Marx, Nora Ephron in "Crazy Salad." Billy -------------------------------------------------- 11/17/2011 12:48:21 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
One could argue that Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle derailed the atomists, and started the inevitable slide into metaphysical quackery. For hundreds of years, though, philosophy was chemistry, math, biology, astronomy, governance, psychology... basically anything that required contemplation or observation. Pythagoras, Caesar, Cicero, Galileo, Leibniz, Mach, Jung, and Einstein were all philosophers. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
