Argument For Lack of Progress in Philosophy
It is often complained that philosophy has developed more slowly than the special sciences, and has not enjoyed the same sort of remarkable and definitive progress seen in chemistry or physics. It is nearly universally agreed (a remarkable feat, amongst philosophers) that this has something to do with the peculiar methods of philosophical inquiry. In particular, philosophy seems to lack the sort of developments that Thomas Kuhn called paradigms—achievements which, by their success, clearly determine which sort of questions are to be asked and what sort of considerations count as evidence for or against answers to those questions.
However, even if it is common to hear that, there is no consensus on the issue—some philosophers, such as Marx, Sartre, and Barthes, do consider that philosophy is historical, i.e. in step with society, a superstructure of it. This amounts to a consideration of the contribution of philosophers of the past as obsolete, or inadequate with respect to synchronic concerns.
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