Richard Carrier - Is Philosophy Stupid?

Okay, ready to respond.

Some of the points Carrier borrows are good.

First, being able to call "bullshit" on one's entire academic field and career is indeed a brave thing. I will be impressed when Richard Carrier calls bullshit on Skepticon, and calls it pseudo-skepticon. I will be impressed when someone at Skepticon calls a halt when they applaud his lame 'argument' and his big reveal slide ( 'religious philosophy is pseudophilophy', was it? can't remember), and says "hang on, is this an argument or a rationalisation of what we already thought? Might the confirmation bias be at play here?"

Second, nice list of mathematical developments philosophers should take heed of, set theory, Cantor etc. (conveniently,Bayesianism epistemology is the pinnacle of 'progress' in philosophy...it would take someone more patient than me to point out how Bayesianism framed his definition of progress in the first place, so it's not surprising Bayesianism ends up looking good. There's a kind of circularity here, I think (not sure)) Back to set theory and Cantor... some of the continental philosophers, I'm thinking especially of Alan Badiou take this seriously and say hang on, set theory changes everything in philosophy. I think they've taken it on board better than Carrier has.

Third, God doesn't exist. Fine, congratulations. Who cares, and why? More important for radical philosophers (who take for granted that God doesn't exist), is strategy. Making a living telling the Skepticon faithful that God doesn't exist just sucks as strategy, if your goal is to do anything other than just keep reinforcing the status quo. This is why Zizek ends up looking like a charlatan. I think it's strategic.

One idea I want to introduce, to get past this whole existence/non-existence of God straw-man game: insistence. I think this originates with John Caputo, "The Insistence of God".

Of course God doesn't "exist", but look at how "God" provides a whole career for Richard Carrier, rebutting theists. How "God" gives meaning to Skepticon follower's lives, devoting weekends to obscure topics like whether Jesus existed. If not for "God", no-one would give a shit. Look how "God" gets the masses cheering over Stephen Fry, "preach it, brother!" I heard people cry.

Our lives are haunted by God, and all these other supernatural beings have a spectral insistence in our lives. Zombies, vampires, angels - we're soaking in this stuff. To insist that what you've called "woo-woo stuff" doesn't exist - is not only boring, it's ideological.

/r/ranprieur Thread Link - youtube.com