All of the 'great philosophers' got virtually everything wrong (and where they got things right, it was by luck rather than virtue) right up to the point where a few people started believing in wacky concepts like "the existence of an objective reality" and "maybe we should test our assumptions". Before that point all "great thoughts" were basically people with too much spare time, confidently making stuff up and declaring it as fact because they thought it made them sound smart.
You are indeed right: philosophers are not, nor ever were, physicists; neither is metaphysics the sole concern of philosophers
philosophy isn't really about answers, it's about questions. it's also not really about knowledge. a philosopher, literally, is a friend or lover of wisdom.
there are decent arguments, for instance, that reasoning about God (yes, angels dancing on pinheads) laid the groundwork for things like calculus as it necessitates reasoning with the infinite.
"objectivity" has been used to justify lots of bad things. and hate to be the bearer of bad news but "stuff people made up" is kinda the definition of society and culture.
> confidently making stuff up and declaring it as fact because they thought it made them sound smart.
pots and kettles.
Hi! Thanks for your thoughts.
I have no issue with pontificating about angles and pinheads. What I have issue with is statements like "platonic solids are the fundamental building blocks of the universe" where the justification is "because I think they're neat".
Plenty of people have used "objectively..." as the start of terrible statements, no argument there. (And let's not even get into objectivism...) But the shared belief in an objective universe governed by universal, immutable, fundamental laws is at the heart of all real science.
Even if the pot's a hypocrite, that doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong.
I still think you're selling the pre-moderns a little bit short, personally.
I respect and appreciate your equanimity in your response to my initial comment, which was admittedly unnecessarily harsh and antagonistic.