Philosophy's Future

The ancient discipline of philosophy, at one time the central intellectual forum for analyzing and understanding the human condition, has come under threat. With the rise of specialized sciences, philosophy relinquished jurisdiction over the empirically and theoretically tractable, and so finds its currency in asking questions without definitive answers. This has resulted in numerous challenges to its continued intellectual authority and cultural value. Has philosophy indeed lost its way in hyperspecialization and self-absorption, retreating from the rest of the world's concerns? Does the view held by some leading scientists have the ring of truth--that 21st-century advances in physics and cognitive neuroscience have rendered the venerable discipline all but obsolete? Philosophy's Future: The Problem of Philosophical Progress presents 17 newly commissioned essays which suggest a range of paths toward academic consensus on philosophy's deepest puzzles. Distinguished contemporary philosophers present competing views on the future of the field, acknowledging its susceptibility to fashion and bias while reaffirming its fundamental value. Essays explore how philosophical investigations of logic, the world, mind, and moral responsibility shape and contribute to the empirical and theoretical sciences in the quest for new knowledge. At the same time, the collection unearths a sense of unease that contemporary philosophy has lost touch with its core principles, and urges course correction before it is too late. Original and thought-provoking, Philosophy's Future diagnoses the state of philosophy as an academic discipline and calls it to account, inviting further reflection and dialogue on its cultural value and capacity for future evolution.