How far have philosophers got?

Answer 1

Up to your question... That is how far philosophers have gotten.
Philosophy is the debate of words, thought, and anything you can think of, (my personal opinion... Others would argue it is just based on the meaning of words). Philosophically speaking, with the world constantly changing, (new words, new meaning of old words, different mind sets, etc...), I think we may always be at square one...
Cybernara

Answer 2

At the moment they've been to six pubs and a wine bar and are stagerring towards Pizza Hut. Some of them might not survive the crossing of the road though by the looks of it.
Two of them are in a box and another four are trying to decide whether the original two are alive or dead or both simultaneously. One in the box wishes he was dead, because not only does he feel very, very sick from all the jolting about as the box is dragged along but also he's in there with a gloomy existentialist woman banging on about the awfulmess of human existence and quoting obscure Germans. If they try to drag the box across the road with the other two inside it, probability will collapse along with the box and the ribcages of the sick man and the gloomy woman under the wheels of a Volvo cab and three axle trailer, of which one of them outside the box is currently denying the existence, however the driver of said Volvo is pretty sure he's dragging round 38 tons of rapidly moving metal and I think he's got a point.
Two of them behind the main group are having a bit of a punch-up over the nature of marriage. Specifically their own marriage; and it's probable that either a divorce or a murder is in the offing, and another three behind them are debating semiotics and syntax, though not one of them understands a word either of the other two are saying because each has apparently made his or her own "symbolic meaning code" up. Either that or they're so muntered on the booze that they can't talk properly.
The two in front have already crossed the road though they deny having done it in any other universe. They were arguing about atheism until the one who postulated the hypothesis about Gods being a metaphor for natural forces was hit by the natural force of a small bolt of lightning and now a revision of thought is being undertaken.Quite quickly.
So, as they started off in the Lord Nelson in Cheapside, and they've been to the Buck, The Jolly Farmer, The Wheatsheaf, The Four Feathers, The Mason's Arms and the Pink Flamingo and now they're about 400 yards from Pizza Hut, I'd say that philosophers have got as far as oh, three quarters of a mile, give or take.

Answer 3

That's not a good question.

I would suggest that built into the question is a mental picture of truth being something that's gradually being uncovered, as if it were like a relic in archaeology that already exists but is only now, and somewhat slowly, being unearthed.

I don't think that truth in philosophy is like that. Philosophers can only make logical arguments that proceed from the best knowledge of the time, and as the knowledge base changes, their arguments will start from different axioms and arrive at different conclusions. So there is arguably no real 'progress' in philosophy. So the question of successive generations of philosophers 'getting somewhere', and improving on the results of previous generations, is based on a naive idea of truth and of philosophy.

This is not inconsistent with the suggestion that some philosophers argue well and some argue very badly, and that there have indeed been whole periods when philosophers have tended to argue from extremely dodgy axioms.

Science, it seems to me, can progress in the way you're talking about, in that new technology can enable us to observe phenomena in greater detail; but the big problems in philosophy have a disturbing habit of not going away. What changes are our methods of solving the problems, and our tolerance of any given solution.

Answer 4

Philosophers have gotten as far to explain different ways to look at thinks. Remember this is basically a field looking at timeless questions. The make make a best guess however they can't say one way or another. There are different approaches to everthing and they simply bring these approaches to light. I hope this has helped!

Answer 5

From the preceding answers, philosophers have done well. Philosophers want people to think and express ideas, even about philosophers.

Answer 6

i guess i am biased, but I would say they have gotten quite far. certainly farther than anybody else in trying to answer the questions that science cannot. one of my professors once said that whenever philosophy answers a question, that answer becomes a science. He used linguistics as an example.

A lot of the problems that people think are major problems actually have pretty satisfactory answers in philosophy. Too many people get hung up on the fact that very little can be "proved" beyond any doubt in philosophy, so they think that the answers given by philosophy are less certain than those given by science. But thats only because philosophy has such a high standard for certain knowledge. The need for ethics, political theory, logic, and epistemology is undoubted. The phenomenon studied by these areas of philosophy cannot be studied very effectively scientifically. Philosophers studying these areas have gotten much farther than anybody else. I guess, if nothing else, I would respond to your question with another question: who is further along, the person who recognizes that there is a problem, and offers possible solutions, or the person who doesn't even recognize the problem?

J23: there have been many great philosophical ideas in the 20th century. kuhn's criticism of scientific objectivity and linear progress, foucault's analysis of the pervasiveness of power, popper's scientific falsifiability, to name a few.

aliassotu: most of the famous western philosophers have lived their lives according to their philosophy. I have looked at both eastern and western philosophy, and there is not as much of a difference as you seem to think. many ideas that are present in eastern philosophy are present in western philosophy (albeit in different language) and vice versa. stereotyping western philosophy as academic and removed from practice is just as unfair as stereotyping eastern philosophy as quietist and impractical. has western philosophy had an impact on our day to day lives? look at the very way we think of ourselves. our individual rationality that we value so much was pioneered kant, our belief in our rights by locke. peter singer played a primary role in starting the animal rights movment. marx's views have shaped the past century. in areas from artificial intelligence to darwinism, from environmental ethics to philosophy of education philosophers are playing key roles.

Answer 7

1. Martin, get an Avatar. I feel like I'm speaking with Casper.

2. That cannot be definitively answered, because of the infinite possibilites in reality.

3. Change revises the equation. Thus you can employ logic to your reality, but change will crush your logic, forcing you to constantly revise.

4. At one time the majority believed the world to be flat. Can you imagine the excitement, as well as deep embarrassment, of those who wrongly proclaimed their reality rested on a flat world?

Good Luck and Warm Wishes.

Answer 8

Western or eastern?
If your a so called academic then i guess western.
How far?
Well they have produced clever arguments, raised interesting questions. Few i know of have lived according to their philosophy.
They have sharpened the intellect and looked at introspection etc.
Written books.
Have they produced the love of wisdom? Hmm?
Have they had a fundamental effect on the rest of us?
In our day to day life?
Have they produced endless rhetoric as fodder for the starving mind? yes!
How far? or How deep?
Ah, but now I'm sliding towards eastern thought.
Probably as far as they could.

Answer 9

I read somewhere that the super conscious being is actually the sum of all the living beings (their consciousness) and it is thru this that we percive our existence and the universe.
There are truly identical clone of sub-atomic particles in each atom of the universe that work togehter to create our consciousness - the life so to speak.

Marriage between the sub-atomic particles and the superbeing is the final step so far I guess.

Answer 10

Define the question. It all depends on what you mean by "got", "philosophers" and "far".