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Intellectuals and the Flintstones
by Glenn Woiceshyn
[The first of many letters published in the Globe and Mail (Nov/03/89)]
Dear Editor,
Re: "Why Intellectuals Care about Flintstones"-by Professor Thomas Hurka--Oct/24/89--the
Globe and Mail
Where are these intellectuals Mr. Hurka describes? Having taken a few courses in
philosophy I would summarize modern philosophy as follows: Metaphysics -- reality
is an illusion and metaphysics is useless anyway; Epistemology -- you can't be certain
of anything (even that!) and knowledge is impossible; Ethics -- life is hell so do
whatever you can get away with.
Because of these ideas (and others) modern philosophy has reached a dead end, and
has alienated many philosophers from "ordinary" people, and has prevented
many of them from solving important practical problems.
There once was a time when philosophers were highly respected because they provided
solutions and insight to important problems. Now very few take them seriously, which
is very sad. Modern philosophers raise many questions and criticize most ideas but
they are reluctant to offer any answers. I hope that in future articles Prof. Hurka
can explain what has happened to that great science, philosophy.
Sincerely,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1997 Glenn Woiceshyn. All rights reserved.
This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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