Difference between revisions of "Fallacies Of Philosophy"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/02/delong-smackdown-watch-lexicographic-preferences.html Brad DeLong] | [http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/02/delong-smackdown-watch-lexicographic-preferences.html Brad DeLong] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ; Presuming that a clear and sharp idea can be used as a starting point. | ||
| + | : In Jorge Luis Borges essay "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins", there is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Those_that_belong_to_the_Emperor classification of animals from an apocryphal Chinese encyclopedia]. The categories include: | ||
| + | # those that belong to the Emperor, | ||
| + | # embalmed ones, | ||
| + | # those that are trained, | ||
| + | # suckling pigs, | ||
| + | # mermaids, | ||
| + | # fabulous ones, | ||
| + | # stray dogs, | ||
| + | # those included in the present classification, | ||
| + | # those that tremble as if they were mad, | ||
| + | # innumerable ones, | ||
| + | # those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, | ||
| + | # others, | ||
| + | # those that have just broken a flower vase, | ||
| + | # those that from a long way off look like flies. | ||
| + | All of these are very clear categories, but they do not work well together. Compare this to scientific classification by common descent, which does work well for pretty much all life. | ||
| + | |||
| + | That's how I view most philosophical ideas such as truth, justice, good, evil, etc. While you can study the relationships between such ideas endlessly, as you can the relationships between the Chinese categories, you do not have much hope of getting to the root explanations, as we have in biology, because the unifying basis is not obvious in these far descended ideas. Starting with such ideas is a pretty clear [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook_(concept)#Skyhooks_and_cranes skyhook]. These ideas need to be explained from much simpler, preferably positivist ideas rooted in evolution, anthropology, game theory, etc. | ||
