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Is there a name for this philosophical activity?
One person proposes an abstruse philosophical position. The other answers it with brute physical reality.
In the example I'm considering, Calvin tells Hobbes that the end justifies the means. Hobbes pushes Calvin into the mud. "You were in my way. Now you're not. The ends justify the means." Calvin replies, "I didn't mean for everyone, you dolt! Just me!"
Surely there must be a philosophical term for Hobbes's line of persuasion, and I don't think it's merely Zen or Argumentum ad Bacculum. Any ideas?
3 Answers
- namelessLv 77 years agoFavorite Answer
Philosophy is 'original critical thought';
Critical Thinking Mini Lessons
http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons.html
Bertrand Russell on Critical Thinking
http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm
As opposed to the 'scholastic';
"..."philosophologists", a term coined by Robert Pirsig ("Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "Lila") to denote people who study other people's philosophy but cannot do philosophy themselves. He also says that most people who consider themselves philosophers are actually philosophologists. The difference between a philosopher and a philosophologist is like the difference between an art and aesthetics; one does and the other studies what the other does and theorizes about it."
When someone responds to the Reality that there is no 'motion', by walking away, it is not a philosophical refutation.
It is a touch of 'empiricism', but science is a feeder branch of the tree of philosophy.
Philosophy trumps simple empiricism!
