Improbulus: Wouldn’t you be fed up if you attended a session in order to learn about a subject you’re interested in, only to find yourself dumped into a group of equally ignorant attendees and forced to listen to people who know as little about the subject as you do, or even less, dominating the proceedings by virtue of egocentricity, pushiness and loudness rather than actual expertise in the subject matter?
Mike LaBossiere: If the discipline of philosophy is defined in a way that precludes achievement, then philosophy can (by definition) never achieve anything. The same sort of method can be used to “prove” that a liberal can never accomplish anything. Just define “liberal” such that if someone achieves something, then she is not a liberal.
It’s a variation on the No True Scotsman and a Straw Man. Certain otherwise rational people engage in rather idiotic anti-philosophical episodes - I’m currently writing about them.
Orson Scott Card should be living proof to all the geeks in the world that being a science fiction author does not protect you from being an idiotic douchebag. Or maybe that living in North Carolina fucks with your brain. He’s calling for a violent overhtrow of the United States government… because he doesn’t like gay marriage. Yeah.
