The Philosophers' Cocoon

While we're on the subject, there's an interview with Peter Unger on his forthcoming book, Empty Ideas: A Critique of Analytic Philosophy over at 3 quarks daily. I'm not as pessimistic about philosophy as Unger is. I think we can do valuable metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy…as long as we take care not to fall into fruitless conceptual debates over fundamentally indeterminate concepts (something that, alas, I think happens too often). However, I also agree with Unger that in order to avoid doing this, philosophy needs to be more empirically informed–indeed, as much as possible. For again, in my view, it is largely empirical inquiry that gives our concepts determinacy, latching onto real (or what Unger calls "concrete") features of the world. Anyway, Unger's interview is a hoot.

In related news, if you haven't read any of her work, M.B. Willard's following two articles in Phil Studies are a hoot, too:

(2013). "Game Called on Account of Fog: Metametaphysics and Epistemic Dismissivism."

(2014). "Against Simplicity".

They're an absolute blast to read, and Williard has–how shall I put it–a real gift for turning a phrase.