While I sympathize with some of this essay's points, I think its criticisms of philosophy are largely unjustified. (Fair warning: I was a philosophy major in college as well.)
Philosophy, at its best, is basically a study of the history of ideas. (Let's set aside modern philosophy, especially the Continental variety, for now.) This seems no more or less practical than any other kind of history, be it military history or art history.
Let me address a few of Paul Graham's points.
First: "Few [philosophers] were sufficiently correct that people have forgotten who discovered what they discovered." This is demonstrably false. How many scientists understand their debt to Aristotle for being the first to attempt a systematic categorization of the natural world? How many people apply Ockham's Razor without knowing anything about the guy who came up with it (other than his name)? How many programmers understand their debt to G.W. Leibniz? How many Americans understand their debt to the many political philosophers (Locke comes to mind) for their system of government? I could go on and on.
Second: "Did studying logic teach me the importance of thinking [logically], or make me any better at it? I don't know." Nevermind logic specifically, but philosophy is widely regarded as an excellent pre-law major, and I know of at least one SCOTUS justice (Breyer) who studied it. Now, maybe it's possible to get the same training on one's own, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of evidence that philosophy is failing to train rigorously critical thinkers.
Third: "Most philosophical debates are not merely afflicted by but driven by confusions over words." Well, most philosophical debates that take place in a freshman dorm under a haze of bong smoke are. Just kidding -- sort of. So the "free will" debate has been beaten to death, and is basically a matter of semantics. Who cares? Are Nietzsche's critiques of ethics just a matter of confusion over words? I don't think so. Ditto the guys I mentioned above.
Fourth: Let's talk about Aristotle. So, Aristotle basically defined the pursuit of science for two thousand years, and it didn't go as well as it has since people decided to move beyond his paradigm. So should we treat Aristotle like a bonehead? I don't think so. I could just as easily say that all military history prior to the invention of gunpower is nothing but a catalogue of hilarious errors rendered irrelevant by the first guy who was smart enough to mix up a few simple chemicals and instantly consign all prior weapon systems to the scrap heap. How could all those hundreds of previous generations be so miserably dumb that they couldn't come up with this simple formula? They actually wasted millennia doing nothing but hitting each other with variations of the sharpened stick/rock/hunk of metal. Why should we waste our time studying them, or worse yet, appreciating them? This is nothing but "presentism."
Fifth: "And so instead of denouncing philosophy, most people who suspected it was a waste of time just studied other things. That alone is fairly damning evidence, considering philosophy's claims." So, it's damning evidence that people who suspect a subject is useless just studied something else? Isn't this true of almost all subjects that students aren't coercively forced to study? Most people who suspect astronomy is a waste of time don't study it. And indeed, I'm sure that describes most people. Is that evidence that all of astronomy is b.s.?
Furthermore, this is supposed to be damning "considering philosophy's claims [i.e., that it's] supposed to be about the ultimate truths." Who exactly made this claim? Mr. Graham attributes this claim to philosophy itself, which is a rather strange thing to do. As far as I know, this is the first time an academic discipline has literally spoken for itself, something I thought academic disciplines were not capable of doing. Does he mean that Aristotle made this claim? If so, I should point out that until long, long after Aristotle, the word "philosophy" was essentially synonymous with all study in the pursuit of knowledge, and thus would include basically every discipline taught in modern universities (except maybe some of the fine arts).
This is a straw man. Damning philosophy because it doesn't reveal the ultimate truths of the universe is like damning capitalism because it doesn't make everybody happy.
Now, it is true that "modern philosophy" finds itself with fewer and fewer useful things to talk about. Most interesting fields of study have split off into their own departments and disciplines. But most of what undergraduate philosophy departments teach their students is really the history of ideas, and that strikes me as a perfectly good and useful thing to study.
Philosophy, at its best, is basically a study of the history of ideas. (Let's set aside modern philosophy, especially the Continental variety, for now.) This seems no more or less practical than any other kind of history, be it military history or art history.
Let me address a few of Paul Graham's points.
First: "Few [philosophers] were sufficiently correct that people have forgotten who discovered what they discovered." This is demonstrably false. How many scientists understand their debt to Aristotle for being the first to attempt a systematic categorization of the natural world? How many people apply Ockham's Razor without knowing anything about the guy who came up with it (other than his name)? How many programmers understand their debt to G.W. Leibniz? How many Americans understand their debt to the many political philosophers (Locke comes to mind) for their system of government? I could go on and on.
Second: "Did studying logic teach me the importance of thinking [logically], or make me any better at it? I don't know." Nevermind logic specifically, but philosophy is widely regarded as an excellent pre-law major, and I know of at least one SCOTUS justice (Breyer) who studied it. Now, maybe it's possible to get the same training on one's own, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of evidence that philosophy is failing to train rigorously critical thinkers.
Third: "Most philosophical debates are not merely afflicted by but driven by confusions over words." Well, most philosophical debates that take place in a freshman dorm under a haze of bong smoke are. Just kidding -- sort of. So the "free will" debate has been beaten to death, and is basically a matter of semantics. Who cares? Are Nietzsche's critiques of ethics just a matter of confusion over words? I don't think so. Ditto the guys I mentioned above.
Fourth: Let's talk about Aristotle. So, Aristotle basically defined the pursuit of science for two thousand years, and it didn't go as well as it has since people decided to move beyond his paradigm. So should we treat Aristotle like a bonehead? I don't think so. I could just as easily say that all military history prior to the invention of gunpower is nothing but a catalogue of hilarious errors rendered irrelevant by the first guy who was smart enough to mix up a few simple chemicals and instantly consign all prior weapon systems to the scrap heap. How could all those hundreds of previous generations be so miserably dumb that they couldn't come up with this simple formula? They actually wasted millennia doing nothing but hitting each other with variations of the sharpened stick/rock/hunk of metal. Why should we waste our time studying them, or worse yet, appreciating them? This is nothing but "presentism."
Fifth: "And so instead of denouncing philosophy, most people who suspected it was a waste of time just studied other things. That alone is fairly damning evidence, considering philosophy's claims." So, it's damning evidence that people who suspect a subject is useless just studied something else? Isn't this true of almost all subjects that students aren't coercively forced to study? Most people who suspect astronomy is a waste of time don't study it. And indeed, I'm sure that describes most people. Is that evidence that all of astronomy is b.s.?
Furthermore, this is supposed to be damning "considering philosophy's claims [i.e., that it's] supposed to be about the ultimate truths." Who exactly made this claim? Mr. Graham attributes this claim to philosophy itself, which is a rather strange thing to do. As far as I know, this is the first time an academic discipline has literally spoken for itself, something I thought academic disciplines were not capable of doing. Does he mean that Aristotle made this claim? If so, I should point out that until long, long after Aristotle, the word "philosophy" was essentially synonymous with all study in the pursuit of knowledge, and thus would include basically every discipline taught in modern universities (except maybe some of the fine arts).
This is a straw man. Damning philosophy because it doesn't reveal the ultimate truths of the universe is like damning capitalism because it doesn't make everybody happy.
Now, it is true that "modern philosophy" finds itself with fewer and fewer useful things to talk about. Most interesting fields of study have split off into their own departments and disciplines. But most of what undergraduate philosophy departments teach their students is really the history of ideas, and that strikes me as a perfectly good and useful thing to study.
All best,
Max Menlo Park, CA.