"You can't open a philosophy factory."

Post Reply New Topic

Isn't that exactly what Plato did? What about Hegel? Couldn't one consider the Soviet Union and some other states before and since to have been philosophy factories? Can you say "Peter Sloterdijk"?

The Soviet Union was no philosophy factory. In fact, philosophy suffered badly under Soviet rule. The Academy and Lyceum could have been considered philosophy factory, but probably such a term could only properly apply to the Sophists. Maybe St. John's College could count as a philosophy factory: a university whose curriculum primarily consists of reading great intellectual works of the Western world. Of course, I disagree with their curriculum since their math and science curriculum consists of reading outdated and inaccurate books.

Not really, factories imply manufacturing, and you cannot produce mass-produce philosophy via a large scale industrial process. The closest you'd get to is perhaps a book manufacturer that works with philosophical works.

This is a game of definition. An Academy in Classical Greece or even an online forum today could rightfully, IMO, be called a philosophy factory.

f**k that, and f**k you. some of the best philsosophy tells people how to be licving their lives, and that is got to be worth a least a buck. for sure, some of the self help bookes solf by the least best people tell people to hope. the beste people keepe it to themselves ad stuff.

Dingdingdingdingding, iamnotaparakeet wins!

You other guys are scary, quite frankly.

There are many philosophy factories in the world.
All of them have ears on either side.

Yes, you can! topic

AHAAAAA!

I am the phounder of the phuture philosophy phactory! (':study:')
(':study:')

Is that the best response you can come up with?

Is that the best response you can come up with?

I suppose I opened this thread somewhat in the spirit of Ludwig Wittgenstein -- who may have been an Aspie btw. Wittgenstein was concerned with, among other things, the problems and misunderstandings which arise out of problems with language. So am I. I believe that words such as "can't," "must," "all," "none" and so forth, words which carry with them a indication of some absoluteness, are used much, much too frequently. This overuse reflects, imo, an insensitivity vis-a-vis the tremendous possibilities and the concommitant vast uncertainties of human existence. (And quite possible of other existences just as much or more so than our human experience.)

Wittgenstein's insistence that no translation of any of his works should be published without the original text on the pages facing the translation is one indication of his concern over misunderstandings of all sorts arising from misinterpretations of language. I don't know for certain whether or not he was an Asperger, but I certainly share his concern.

To return to the title of the thread, before it can start to make any sense, a very specific definition of factories, and of philosophy, is essential.

Orwell points out that philosophy fared very badly under Soviet rule. Even if if we accept for the sake of argument that Orwell's statement is true, it does not refute the statement in the thread title, because a factory which produces low-quality products, or even one which doesn't produce anything because its lines keep breaking down, or because the workers are always on strike, or because no-one can figure out how to run the machines which assemble things on the line or what have you, can still be a factory. Maybe a very bad factory, but a factory nonetheless.

I would have been more inclined to agree with Orwell if he had said that the Soviet Union was a problem-plagued philosophy factory which turned out a lot of inferior product.

I was drunk. Leave me alone...

Given that circumstance you made perfect sense. The OP did not, the only part of your post I took issue with was gratuitous vulgarity. Since I use such language on almost a daily basis at work, I can now look at your post and appreciate the sincerity lacking in the original post. Bollinger, do open your philosophy factory and Pontificate to your hearts content. Be the China of philosophy manufacture, spewing out platitudes by the lead painted shipload. Who knows? Maybe you'll be offered Tenure at UC Berkeley.

Like Hallmark has tried to?

What? Who says you "cant open such a factory"? Also, everything can be considered such a factory. Move to strike on this thread.

Yes, you can (continued) topic

Yay, Ludwig! He came through!


What cannot be shown must be said!! !!