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the failures of philosophy The Failures of Philosophy a historical essay Stephen Gaukroger princeton university press princeton & oxford Copyright © 2020 by Princeton University Press Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to [email protected] Published by Princeton University Press 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved ISBN 9780691207506 ISBN (e-book) 9780691209579 LCCN 2020940121 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Editorial: Ben Tate and Josh Drake Production Editorial: Debbie Tegarden Jacket/Cover Design: Layla Mac Rory Production: Danielle Amucci Publicity: Alyssa Sanford and Amy Stewart Copyeditor: Francis Eaves This book has been composed in Miller Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 We need history, but not in the way that the spoiled loafer in the garden of knowledge needs history. —nietzsche, ‘of the use and abuse of history’ contents Preface · xi Introduction 1 PART I THE RISE AND FALL OF PHILOSOPHY IN ANTIQUITY 23 chapter 1 The Emergence of Philosophy 25 Coming to Terms with the World 28 A Presocratic Genealogy 33 The Transition to Philosophy 39 Outwitting Opponents vs Intellectual Morality 47 The Metaphysics of Morals 50 Moral Complexity 53 chapter 2 Metaphysics as a Form of Understanding 59 Explanation by Essential Properties 62 Logic as a Route to Understanding 68 Epistemology and Morality 71 chapter 3 Philosophy’s Loss of Autonomy 79 The Good Life 81 The Undisturbed Life 88 [ vii ] [ viii ] contents The Vagaries of Platonism 92 The Christian Assimilation of Philosophy 99 PART II PHILOSOPHY RE-PURPOSED AS THE ULTIMATE ARBITER 109 chapter 4 The Creation of an Autonomous Role for Philosophy 111 Philosophy as a Tool of Theology 112 The Revival of Aristotle 120 The Role of Metaphysics 123 Losing Control: Renaissance Naturalism 126 Regaining Control: The Abandonment of Aristotle 129 The Persona of the New Natural Philosopher 132 chapter 5 From Natural Philosophy to Epistemology 139 Reconfiguring Knowledge 141 Optics and Representationalism 150 Knowledge of the World 162 Does Natural Philosophy Replace Sense Perception? 168 chapter 6 Reason versus Sensibility 173 Contact with the World 175 Moral Diversity and Moral Complexity 186 Beyond Philosophy? 198 contents [ ix ] PART III THE DECLINE OF PHILOSOPHY AND ITS RE-PURPOSING AS METASCIENCE 201 chapter 7 The Retreat from Philosophy 203 The Perils of Metaphysics 204 Medicine of the Mind 217 Philosophy and the Shaping of Character 225 The Collapse of the Standing of Philosophy 227 chapter 8 The Search for a Theory of Everything 231 Philosophy as a Theory of Everything 237 All or Nothing 247 Science as a Theory of Everything 251 The Quantification of Morality 255 chapter 9 Science Assimilates Philosophy 261 Philosophy as a Metatheory of Science 262 The Logical Structure of the World 266 Rethinking the Nature of Philosophy 277 Conclusion 283 Notes · 289 Index · 2 97