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Perrr333 t1_j4mfa64 wrote

Does anyone else like philosophy but dislike (or find boring, annoying, stupid, what have you) many contemporary philosophers? I found in uni that while most philosophers were nice people (moreso than other disciplines), there was a fair amount of work going on which I thought was wrong, stupid or pointless. The same goes for reading contemporary papers, even of people well respected in their field (I'm looking at you Nick Bostrom).

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Wanderer1898 t1_j4pq1w8 wrote

Could you expand more on what you have in mind? To which field(s) are you referring?

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Perrr333 t1_j4px9q8 wrote

No particular fields. I knew a really nice and smart professor primarily working in logic who spent a while wasting time on some philosophy of language, many tedious and reinterpretations of modern philosophers (your Mills and Sartres etc., but also more obscure figures I can't remember the names of), a rather arrogant philosopher of economics who was doing things like taking models and assume they were intended as true descriptions of reality, and much more. There were still probably more people doing at least somewhat interesting and good work in the department than not, but when reading papers you'd find just so much that adds little value. As for students, the average level of ability was low.

I have a substantial amount of disrespect for metaphysics, but I don't think the philosophers in that field were better or worse than average, I just think the field itself is largely wrongheaded.

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SeaAnywhere1845 t1_j5benem wrote

Interesting and good are subjective. They could also find great meaning in the small focuses that you think adds little value or in the philosophy of language. There is an enormous amount of work being done across topics and with different issue areas out there, perhaps you just haven’t found the modern work that strikes you and that you find significant yet. It may be helpful to engage more with this material you think is wrong or pointless - there may be something your missing about it or you could develop your own counter theories by writing out what you think is wrong about them. If you don’t see contemporary philosophy that strikes you, start writing out your own ideas and then find if anyone out there has similar conclusions.

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