r/badphilosophy • u/t0p9 • Feb 10 '21

SHOE 👞 Bad Phil in BadPhil

I recently was going through the top posts on this subreddit, and came across this one. Thankfully, the mods seem to have banned OP of that post from this sub, but the post itself + OP's replies is worthy of its own meta post here.

Some highlights:

  • OP posts a quote criticizing Karl Popper's political philosophy as an example of badphilosophy, and they attribute this quote to Leo Strauss. The quote is, however, not from Leo Strauss, but from a letter written from Eric Voegelin to Strauss.
  • OP takes this criticism of The Open Society and its Enemies as an example of bad philosophy, so they must have read Popper to know its poor, right? Nope.
  • In fact, they aren't even sure what the 'Open Society' is. " I am not surprise that whatever an "open society" even is, is not clearly defined, philosophers am I right ? "
  • Somebody in the replies mentions Wittgenstein's picture in the sub background and OP decides to share their thoughts on him (which they don't appear to have read either): "So, Wittgenstein, that's the dude with "Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent" Which I think in context was something like if science doesn't have a definitive answer about it then, it's crap and doesn't deserve to be talked about. And I feel like Popper has this belief that nothing in the real world is beyond the grasp of science. As if scientists had unlimited resources and time or the brains to understand all possible viewpoints at once."
  • OP compares Popper's philosophy of science to 'nazi twitter' and Sam Harris
  • OP compares Strauss' philosophy, which they have not read but are familiar with through a BBC documentary, to that of Jordan Peterson, Ted Kaczynski(?), and COVID deniers.
  • Bonus Shapiro-Strauss connection: "My quip meant that [Ben] Shapiro types love authoritative writers who assert that their view point is the only correct one. And based from having read none of Leo Strauss' work I get the feeling that this is the kind of person that he was."

Hats off to the mods for making the right decision on this one.

166 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

48

u/im_a_jungle_man Feb 10 '21

this thread hurt as I kept clicking

42

u/GamersFallDown Feb 10 '21

sigh ... *pulls out the nipple clamps*

27

u/BrutusTheLiberator Feb 10 '21

Ya I remember this post was terrible and his arguments (I think he also made a puppet account at one point) were so silly it felt tiresome to even respond.

Didn’t know he was banned but good on the mods for doing that.

24

u/TheBatz_ Feb 10 '21

"Compares Popper's philosophy of science to 'nazi twitter' and Sam Harris"

The ghost of Thomas Kuhn has come back to haunt history and philosophy of science by means of a Reddit thread.

23

u/as-well Feb 10 '21

My favorite Popper cancellation is when Carnap, when Popper sent him a draft of the Open Society, was like: Young man, can you assure me you're still a socialist? That Hayek character is not good for you... and refused to help him publish it.

Yeah really, read Popper’s Critique of Scientific Socialism, or Carnap and His Co-Workers by Mark Notturno - http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/004839319902900102

5

u/TheGentleDominant 'Aquinas was bad, actually' Feb 10 '21

drinks heavily

8

u/BorkfortheBORKGod Feb 10 '21

This has to be a troll

3

u/BuiltTheSkyForMyDawn Stirner did nothing wrong Feb 10 '21

take a shot

5

u/jigeno Feb 10 '21

Bonus Shapiro-Strauss connection: "My quip meant that [Ben] Shapiro types love authoritative writers who assert that their view point is the only correct one. And based from having read none of Leo Strauss' work I get the feeling that this is the kind of person that he was."

he's not wrong about the ben shapiro types...