September 10, 2010 | 
Author Bare assertion is the first fallacy asserted in Hawking and Mlodinow’s newest book, A Grand Design.
Philosophy is Dead, A Fallacy of Bare Assertion
From the Wikipedia list of fallacies:
Bare assertion fallacy: premise in an argument is assumed to be true purely because it says that it is true.
“Philosophy is dead.” This is a bare assertion fallacy. How can this be held to be true?
Do philosophers still exist? Of course, they do.
Do people still practice philosophy? Indeed philosophy is still practiced, unless the definition of philosophy has been changed.
The bare assertion fallacy does not support the claim that philosophy is dead.
If the etymology of philosophy has been changed, then another kind of fallacy would naturally follow.
Where did the word philosophy come from?
Wikipedia reveals, “The word ‘philosophy’ comes from the Greek (philosophia), which literally means ‘love of wisdom’.”
Isn’t it safe to say, and even logical to proclaim, that human curiosity is evidence of the human love of wisdom?
It then follows that to proclaim the death of philosophy is to proclaim at least one part of human nature to be dead, which is the curiosity that evinces philosophy?
How do Hawking and Mlodinow justify the claim that philosophy is dead?
“Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics”
It does not follow, when considering the above quote to be valid, that philosophy is necessarily dead. Is philosophy held to the same qualifying standards and speed of advancement as physics?
What is the sense of the last of the three statements? “Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.”
Who handed scientists the torch? Was it a philosopher or a theologian? Was it a Christian or a Hindu? Was it a Muslim or a Buddhist?
Perhaps scientists have simply decided that it belonged to them. Perhaps they decided that they were the only people in educated society that had a right to be the keepers of the light.
Isn’t this strangely familiar territory?
Isa 14:12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
Isa 14:13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;
Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
-NKJV
Philosophy is dead is a bare assertion fallacy because the claim is unwarranted and which only serves to exalt scientists to be the determinists of natural law.
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