Sunday, April 26, 2020

Bad Philosophy

What is bad philosophy? What makes for a bad philosopher or a good philosopher gone bad? What's the difference between a bad philosopher and someone who makes groundless, unjustified, or nonsensical philosophical claims and isn't really a philosopher at all?
      A bad philosopher may be one who proposes logically unsound or invalid arguments for the truth of propositions. Thus, a bad philosopher may be one who, under the guise of working as a philosopher, actually works in a careless, illogical, uncritical, and non-rigorous manner.
      A bad philosopher may be one who says they are doing philosophy but actually fails to engage in any meaningful way with philosophical arguments that have already been made about the particular philosophical subjects they are investigating.
      A bad philosopher may be one who may more accurately be called a pseudo-philosopher (working on pseudo-philosophical problems, and doing pseudo-philosophy).
      A bad philosopher may also be one whose writing is needlessly vague, obscure, impenetrable, pretentious, pedantic, and full of technical jargon or unnecessary neologisms for rather trivial, empty, or meaningless concepts.
      A bad philosopher may also be one whose writing is repetitive, redundant, unintelligible, or simply incoherent.
      A bad philosopher may be one who implicitly or explicitly endorses racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, fascism, eugenics, genocide, or some other morally objectionable or repugnant social viewpoint, ideology, or political agenda.
      A bad philosopher may also be one who takes the term "philosophy" to mean only "Western philosophy," and who ignores non-Western philosophical traditions. A bad philosopher may be one who ignores and attempts to marginalize the philosophical thought and contributions of women, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ people, and other historically underrepresented groups in academic or professional philosophy.
      Bad philosophy may be philosophy that violates or deviates from the generally accepted norms, principles, and standards of philosophy (as long as those norms, principles, and standards are sufficiently justified, and are not arbitrary). If philosophy involves a search for truth, then bad philosophy may be characterized by epistemic vices (such as intellectual dishonesty, unscrupulousness, and inconsistency), rather than epistemic virtues (such as intellectual honesty, conscientiousness, and consistency).
      Bad philosophy may present unpersuasive and unconvincing arguments for the positions it takes. It may be poorly argued and easily refuted.
      On the other hand, it may be skillfully argued for detestable purposes or reprehensible moral positions. It may be "bad," in this sense, insofar as it arises from "bad" motives or has "bad" aims or purposes (where being "bad" is taken to mean being morally wrong, blameworthy, or evil). So there may be more than one sense in which bad philosophy may be "bad."
      Bad philosophy may employ specious arguments in order to deceive or mislead those whom it attempts to persuade. It may knowingly employ flawed or fallacious reasoning in order to defend a particular position, regardless of whether that position is actually justified, viable, or rational. Rather than trying to rectify our misjudgments or misconceptions about things, it may try to reinforce them. So sophistry may be a form of bad philosophy, not in the sense of being unpracticed or unskillful, but in the sense of being meretricious and unconcerned with the truth of things.
      Bad philosophy may also misread the texts of other disciplines or philosophies. It may misquote or misattribute textual sources, and it may misapply or misappropriate the terms of other disciplines.

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