Where's the love?

Three years in a row now I've participated in the Ragnar del Sol running relay. By now I know the drill well, including Sunday, the day after the event, being a wash for getting anything done but some fast catching up on much needed sleep. This is my way of saying that I spent even less time than usual thinking about what to blog today.

Occasionally I wonder if I should have squeezed in a second minor during my four years in college. In case you're wondering, I majored in computer science and minored in math, which together made for a pragmatic though somewhat humdrum education from which to pursue a career in software development.

I enjoyed taking fewer credits and registering for fun electives with nothing more than fancy as my guide during my last year in college, but maybe I would have been better off going for depth in one field, something unrelated to my then upcoming career. But, if I had had to pick a second minor at the time, I probably would have picked philosophy, and in this I'm glad I didn't chase after that second minor. I've become less impressed with professional philosophy the older I get.

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So this is what passes for professional philosophy these days? This is nothing more than high-brow, jargon-laced rationalizing of your desired conclusions. Are you that blind to your biases?

Yes, I hear your layman criticisms all the time, often bordering on being little more than ad hominem attacks. Why don't you actually take the time to read some real philosophy before bothering to respond with your tired and predictable responses? Maybe you'd learn something.

Why? Because I reject the idea that an education in philosophy makes a person any more qualified to love wisdom.

Really? How about I visit you at your job and offer my criticisms of the software you write? Surely you don't believe that an education in computer science makes you more qualified to develop software than others!

Don't give me that “we should all stick to what we know” garbage. I don't tell a plumber how to do his job. The plumber doesn't tell a bean farmer how to do his job. A bean farmer doesn't tell an accountant how to do his job. And accountants don't tell me how to do my job. That's because these jobs are all regular jobs that produce a good or service. Your job, as far as I can tell, is to come up with “universal principles” that tell you how to tell everyone else how to live their lives. Then you lay down diplomas and reading lists as credentials and gripe when other people dismiss you for admonishing them. If you don't want your ideas dismissed, stopped using words like “universal” and “principle”.

I'm sorry you have such a problem with truth.

Add “truth” to the list of words to avoid. I'd give you guys some credit if your field showed any semblance of convergence. In my field, quick sort is undeniably more efficient than bubble sort. It's pretty well regarded that the indiscriminate use of goto makes for bad code. Whereas, philosophers have been arguing about basic premises for thousands of years and show no sign of coming to agreement. As far as I can tell, if I actually did go read some real philosophy like you suggest, I'd still disagree with you just as I do now, only I'd do so obtusely and every bit as ineffectually. Stop pretending that the only thing holding back the whole world with agreeing with you is that they haven't read enough of the same books as you have.

What a waste of time. Tired and predictable indeed. You completely lack awareness of the subtleties and nuances that have been worked out by greater minds than yours hundreds of years in the past. This conversation is over.