Is philosophy a joke?

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Author

Tom Slee

Published

May 2, 2012

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No, not a continuation of the theme of the previous two posts.

My son, who has been pursuing a degree in philosophy over the last couple of years with steadily mounting frustration, has decided to “drop out”, work for a while, and consider where he goes next. He signs off his blog here:

Although it is unfortunate to quit before I can figure out whether (the vast majority of) philosophers are actually as staggeringly incompetent as they appear to be, or are simply playing an elaborate practical joke, I simply couldn’t stand it either way.

Yes, he’s disenchanted. I’m proud of him and his efforts to find a way to apply reason to important questions about life, and I’ve been dismayed to watch the discipline of philosophy lose someone as motivated as he has been, punishing originality rather than encouraging it, pandering to intuition, and giving up on reason while spending its time on issues such as whether proper names are rigid designators.

I’m no philosopher, but while I look forward to seeing what my son does next, I have no inclination whatsoever to read Naming and Necessity.