On criticism, antisemitism, and being anti-Philosophy

Whenever I present my work on intuition mongering in Philosophy, I sometimes get reactions similar to the one reported by Nick Byrd on the Experimental Philosophy blog here:

 

The assumption underlying such reactions seems to be something like this: “If you’re criticizing accepted ways of doing Philosophy, then you must want to kill Philosophy.” But this is bad reasoning. Take it from me; my people make this mistake all the time. They (not all of them, of course) think that anyone who criticizes Israel’s current policies is an anti-Semite who wants to destroy Israel. But there are those who criticize Israel, not because they hate Israel, but because they think that the current policies are bad for Israel.

Similarly, there are those who criticize accepted ways of doing Philosophy, not because they are anti-Philosophy, but because they think that these methods are bad for Philosophy.

I always thought this point is so obvious that it goes without saying. Unfortunately, my experience suggests otherwise.

Comments

[Brad Cokelet]

Hi Moti,

I sympathize with you, and imagine this response is annoying. Have you tried starting out with a quick sketch of the positive method in philosophy you prefer - the method you think we can pursue to establish substantive/interesting/positive results? I can imagine that if people say you are criticizing an alternative to the method you actually like then they would be less prone to have this annoying response. Just a thought!

[Moti Mizrahi]

Hi Brad,

Thanks very much for the advice, which sounds very reasonable to me. I will definitely give it a try.

[jonathan weinberg]

I'm fond of reminding people in such circumstances, that trying to improve philosophy by railing vigorously & vehemently against then-current philosophical practices, puts one in a long tradition that includes (at a minimum) Descartes, Hume, Kant, and the positivists. Maybe our arguments today aren't as good as those of the greats, but we're anti-philosophical, then so are those guys. (I don't include Wittgenstein there, because, um, maybe he really was anti-philosophical!)

[Moti Mizrahi]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks very much for your comment. Nothing makes a philosopher feel better about his/her work than thinking of him/herself as in the company of the greats. :)

[Nick]

Hey thanks for sharing Moti! I wish my response to the question was as thoughtful as yours. Now I am prepared for next time.