Philosophical Progress
Edited by Lewis Ross (London School of Economics)
About this topic
Summary | Thinking about philosophical progress requires us to think about the very nature of philosophy, its aims, and whether philosophers are doing well or badly in meeting those aims. Does philosophy make intellectual progress? If it does, what does this progress consist in? Is progress all (and only) about truth or knowledge? What entity is the proper subject of philosophical progress? Is progress compatible with apparent widespread disagreement among philosophers? Is progress in philosophy like or unlike progress in other disciplines, such as the sciences? These are the sorts of questions addressed by those concerned with philosophical progress. |
Key works | For a defence of a moderately pessimistic view based on (lack of) convergence, see Chalmers 2015. For a book-length defence of a moderately optimistic view based on acquiring knowledge of the answers to philosophical questions, see Stoljar 2017. Ross forthcoming defends a multi-factor view of philosophical progress combining convergence, formulating new questions, and acquiring knowledge of the answers to these questions. For a diverse edited collection, see Blackford & Broderick 2017. Important work on progress and different approaches to theorising about it can also be found in the literature on scientific progress (https://philpapers.org/browse/scientific-progress). |
Introductions | Thinking about progress in philosophy presupposes some familiarity with philosophical debates. Many discussions also draw comparisons with progress in science. Dellsén et al 2022 provides a wide-ranging discussion of different views on philosophical progress, alongside discussion of scientific progress. Dellsén 2018 is an accessible introduction to different views on scientific progress. |
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Related categories
Siblings:
- Disagreement in Philosophy (188)
- Kinds of Philosophy (18)
- Metaontology (2,026 | 2)
- Metaphilosophy, Misc (218)
- The Nature of Philosophy (155)
- The Nature of Analytic Philosophy (119)
- Philosophical Language (38)
- The Role of Philosophy (104)
- The Value of Philosophy (62)
- Traditions in Philosophy (55)
- Verbal Disputes (44)
- Women in Philosophy (146)
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Editorial team
General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario) David Chalmers (ANU, NYU) Area Editors: David Bourget Gwen Bradford Berit Brogaard Margaret Cameron David Chalmers James Chase Rafael De Clercq Ezio Di Nucci Esa Diaz-Leon Barry Hallen Hans Halvorson Jonathan Ichikawa Michelle Kosch Øystein Linnebo JeeLoo Liu Paul Livingston Brandon Look Manolo Martínez Matthew McGrath Michiru Nagatsu Susana Nuccetelli Giuseppe Primiero Jack Alan Reynolds Darrell P. Rowbottom Aleksandra Samonek Constantine Sandis Howard Sankey Jonathan Schaffer Thomas Senor Robin Smith Daniel Star Jussi Suikkanen Aness Kim Webster Other editors Contact us Learn more about PhilPapers |