The big lessons of philosophising

if you've decided that one group of intelligent people are clearly wrong, then you've probably failed to understand the full complexity of the problem

some questions can't be resolved yet, or are maybe fundamentally ill-posed

the devil is in the details - you can convince people with rhetoric, but if you want to be right, you have to burrow burrow burrow

there's always a means of undermining your assumptions, always a meta-position that invalidates the entire debate

even rational, intelligent, truth-seeking people can fail to draw the same conclusions

the value of some questions doesn't lie in their answers

consistency, patience, ability to withhold belief - some people don't see the attraction of methods that prioritise these

given the ineliminable level of noise and ignorance attached to any real questions, philosophising can't help you decide pragmatic questions

philosophising has its own aesthetics - and many of them, often exclusive to each other





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