RandomPoster
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- May 22, 2017
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I have made an attempt to construct a quick summary of the history of philosophy in an attempt to describe how various philosophical outlooks have affected history and brought us to the point we are now at.
Modern philosophy has its roots in ancient Greece. It progressed from Socratic dialogues (the childish practice of never-ending "questions"), to Plato's study of transcendental forms, to Aristotelian logic. After that, things gradually progressed over the centuries. The main hinderance to progress was that Philosophers were attempting to advance through pure deduction because they were mired down in traditional Aristotelian logic and appeals to authority. Now, not many things in this world can be reduced to pure logic inside our minds. That's simply the way it is and you will not get very far with pure deduction. As a result, philosophers were attempting to supplement the limited productivity of deductive logic with metaphysical speculation, aka mental masturbation. This simply magnified the unreliable nature of human deduction and made things even worse. Out of frustration and wanting to distance themselves from the metaphysics that had overtaken the philosophical community at the time, some of the more productive philosophers branched off and created their own field, which they called Natural Philosophy.
Eventually, a visionary genius came along by the name of Sir Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon, in addition to being a brilliant scholar, was also a very observant man. He noticed that the most successful inventors of his day were not primarily advancing through deductive logic or metaphysical speculation. Instead, they were progressing through tirelessly observing and then brainstorming and experimenting. They were using a process he referred to as "eliminative induction", or trial and error if you prefer. This was the inspiration for Francis Bacon's monumental contribution to philosophy.
He spread his revolutionary brand of Philosophy throughout the world and as it caught on, technological progress absolutely skyrocketed. What we now know as the Scientific Revolution was launched and the world rejoiced. Based on the success of the Scientific Revolution, the Natural Philosophers eventually broke off completely from the rest of philosophy and officially renamed their field Science, once and for all leaving the metaphysical sorcerers behind to wallow in their toxic and intellectually impotent cesspool of meta-twaddle and "critical discussions".
So complete was the victory of empiricism over rationalism that it soon became obvious to the world that Francis Bacon had not only decisively ended the dispute between the two paradigms, he had basically solved nearly all the open questions in Philosophy regarding epistemology and methodology. Empiricism had crushed rationalism, strangled the life out of it and was now triumphantly parading its corpse around on a pike. The future looked bright and the sky was the limit. Eventually, the Logical Positivists/Empiricists came along and attempted an intervention to rescue as many of the metaphysicians from their hopeless situation as they could, at the same time tying up most of the remaining loose ends in legitimate philosophy and driving the final nails into the coffin of metaphysics. They ushered in the Golden Age of Philosophy that reached its peak in the early to mid 20th century. All that remained was to educate new generations in the liberating doctrines of Logical Empiricism to ensure continued progress and bring joy to the world.
In the meantime, the remaining irrationalists had mostly slithered away into the shadows and as a result had largely been quarantined off into obscure areas of academia where they could do little harm, or so people thought. Everything was progressing wonderfully until about 1970 or so. Unfortunately, the irrationalists had been conniving away in those dark, insidious, and remote areas within the various humanities departments for quite some time, awaiting an opportunity to launch their counter-attack. Their goal was and is to subvert traditional western society and to replace it with their own toxic, irrational and totally unrealistic vision of a utopian society. Their intellectual leaders range from Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, Focault, Derrida, Freud, Nietzschke, as well as many other anti-intellectual annihilationists, metaphysicians, political activists, and other various pseudo-intellectual conmen.
The first major blow struck by the irrationalists was during the Vietnam War, when legions of hippy draft-dodgers flooded into colleges. Many of them, not being serious students, except merely wanting to avoid the draft, were easily mystified and subsequently brainwashed by various irrationalists, such as members of the Frankfurt School and their followers. Thus began the "long march through the institutions" originally mapped out by Antonio Gramsci. Today, the irrationalists have taken complete control of the educational system, the mainstream media, and social media companies. In a matter of only a few decades, the irrationalists are suddenly on the verge of overturning all the progress of the last 2000 years and destroying Western Civilization.
We must fight them every step of the way if we wish to protect the civilized world.
Modern philosophy has its roots in ancient Greece. It progressed from Socratic dialogues (the childish practice of never-ending "questions"), to Plato's study of transcendental forms, to Aristotelian logic. After that, things gradually progressed over the centuries. The main hinderance to progress was that Philosophers were attempting to advance through pure deduction because they were mired down in traditional Aristotelian logic and appeals to authority. Now, not many things in this world can be reduced to pure logic inside our minds. That's simply the way it is and you will not get very far with pure deduction. As a result, philosophers were attempting to supplement the limited productivity of deductive logic with metaphysical speculation, aka mental masturbation. This simply magnified the unreliable nature of human deduction and made things even worse. Out of frustration and wanting to distance themselves from the metaphysics that had overtaken the philosophical community at the time, some of the more productive philosophers branched off and created their own field, which they called Natural Philosophy.
Eventually, a visionary genius came along by the name of Sir Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon, in addition to being a brilliant scholar, was also a very observant man. He noticed that the most successful inventors of his day were not primarily advancing through deductive logic or metaphysical speculation. Instead, they were progressing through tirelessly observing and then brainstorming and experimenting. They were using a process he referred to as "eliminative induction", or trial and error if you prefer. This was the inspiration for Francis Bacon's monumental contribution to philosophy.
He spread his revolutionary brand of Philosophy throughout the world and as it caught on, technological progress absolutely skyrocketed. What we now know as the Scientific Revolution was launched and the world rejoiced. Based on the success of the Scientific Revolution, the Natural Philosophers eventually broke off completely from the rest of philosophy and officially renamed their field Science, once and for all leaving the metaphysical sorcerers behind to wallow in their toxic and intellectually impotent cesspool of meta-twaddle and "critical discussions".
So complete was the victory of empiricism over rationalism that it soon became obvious to the world that Francis Bacon had not only decisively ended the dispute between the two paradigms, he had basically solved nearly all the open questions in Philosophy regarding epistemology and methodology. Empiricism had crushed rationalism, strangled the life out of it and was now triumphantly parading its corpse around on a pike. The future looked bright and the sky was the limit. Eventually, the Logical Positivists/Empiricists came along and attempted an intervention to rescue as many of the metaphysicians from their hopeless situation as they could, at the same time tying up most of the remaining loose ends in legitimate philosophy and driving the final nails into the coffin of metaphysics. They ushered in the Golden Age of Philosophy that reached its peak in the early to mid 20th century. All that remained was to educate new generations in the liberating doctrines of Logical Empiricism to ensure continued progress and bring joy to the world.
In the meantime, the remaining irrationalists had mostly slithered away into the shadows and as a result had largely been quarantined off into obscure areas of academia where they could do little harm, or so people thought. Everything was progressing wonderfully until about 1970 or so. Unfortunately, the irrationalists had been conniving away in those dark, insidious, and remote areas within the various humanities departments for quite some time, awaiting an opportunity to launch their counter-attack. Their goal was and is to subvert traditional western society and to replace it with their own toxic, irrational and totally unrealistic vision of a utopian society. Their intellectual leaders range from Marx, Hegel, Heidegger, Focault, Derrida, Freud, Nietzschke, as well as many other anti-intellectual annihilationists, metaphysicians, political activists, and other various pseudo-intellectual conmen.
The first major blow struck by the irrationalists was during the Vietnam War, when legions of hippy draft-dodgers flooded into colleges. Many of them, not being serious students, except merely wanting to avoid the draft, were easily mystified and subsequently brainwashed by various irrationalists, such as members of the Frankfurt School and their followers. Thus began the "long march through the institutions" originally mapped out by Antonio Gramsci. Today, the irrationalists have taken complete control of the educational system, the mainstream media, and social media companies. In a matter of only a few decades, the irrationalists are suddenly on the verge of overturning all the progress of the last 2000 years and destroying Western Civilization.
We must fight them every step of the way if we wish to protect the civilized world.
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