Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The future of philosophy

What lies ahead for philosophy to pursue? I'll admit, my knowledge of contemporary philosophy isn't particularly thorough, and so these conjectures may in fact be the present. Despite this there are three primary categories that I foresee as being at the forefront of philosophy to come (or that which are already present).

(In a self-defeating effort to be scholarly, these categories are presented in Latin... utterly unnecessary.)

  • Philosophia ad confinium

    Philosophy towards boundaries. This entails the further and further narrowing our inquiries on an epistemological basis, ultimately restricting development in most branches of philosophy. Metaphysics will continue to be subject to de-emphasis.


  • Philosophia cum praesumptum

    Philosophy with presumption. (Contentious/old-school-dialectical deduction.) As the former category begins to plateau, this will acquire more and more attention. This method is fairly popular as it is, especially with regard to ethics and ontology, e.g. presupposing that God has the quality F, then what of X?


  • Philosophia nam usum

    Philosophy for application. Ethics, political philosophy, and axiology will never be subjugated; their nature requires that they are continually and actively acted upon. Of course, more progressive societies will emphasize this more than others, but the consideration is always there.


Any thoughts?


7/21 update:

My current views:

Epistemology: Done, not narrowing. Nothing more to see here.
Contentious: Interesting but not practical.
Applied: Practical, but not all that philosophical anymore.

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