Kindless Philosophy

 Common Sense and the Third-Person Point of View “ Some useful skirmishes in this campaign do consist of rigorous, formal explorations of particular sets of hunches. That is in fact the best light in which to view the various formalist failures of philosophy-as if they had been prefaced with "What if we made these assumptions and proceeded under these constraints?" As Fodor says, "The form of a philosophical theory, often enough, is: Let's try looking over here." (1981a, p. 31) Every formal system in philosophy must be "motivated," and the informal task of providing that motivation typically contributes more philosophical illumination (or at least doctrine) than the system for which it paves the way. There is always more than one candidate system or perspective crying out for philosophical exploration and development, and in such an unruly arena of thought, tactical considerations play an unusually important role. These tactical considerations often ma...