FOR THE ENCOURGMENT OF PHILOSOPHERS

The author outlines the situation of philosophy and asks in a practical way: What is to be done? The focus is on the situation of philosophy as a source of knowledge. The author assumes, after Plato and others philosophers, that to know is to have justified true belief. However he argues further that philosophy is incapable of delivering knowledge. The author's argument is based on the justified assumption that justification can only be achieved in accordance with an algorithm. The argument runs as follows. Let us take the classic philosophical problem: Does a physical object exist? The problem of realism can only be resolved by someone who can distinguish between a state of consciousness and of a dream and this is impossible because every test of consciousness can only be made consciously and so on into infinity. The problem of realism cannot therefore be decided. Next the author assumes that each philosophical question has a form, in the end, of the problem of realism, so the procedure of examining must also have one and the same form. This then poses the question of whether a general procedure (algorithm) for deciding philosophical problems exists? Thanks to Alan Turing we know that the so called Turing machine does not exist. Thus a machine which works algorithmically on resolving philosophical problems does not exist. Thus philosophical knowledge does not exist. However as the study of mathematics is worthwhile so must it be worthwhile to study philosophy. Mathematics employs intuition, in the absence of a universal algorithm, as a source of inspiration, as an instrument of insight into concepts and a control mechanism for local algorithms. In other words, it is worth following the example of the mathematicians and enriching the concept of justification. Indeed philosophy engenders hope when it comes closer to mathematics, but it can only inspire pity when it moves away from mathematics.