Does philosophy cease to exist if a catastrophic event occurs?
Supposed an asteroid (insert diameter) impacts earth and life as we know it at least for humans is destroyed and although the impact devastates the human population as well as the land itself, it is not enough to destroy humanity. Suppose humanity somehow survived, and managed to have the capacity to rebuild, does the nature of philosophy cease to exist based upon the human condition? Of course the historical elements of philosophy may cease, elements such as Aristotle's Lyceum, or Athenian Agora, or the Acropolis of Athens will be gone but will philosophy remain?
Comments (20)
Yes, people will always love wisdom.
It might be a different type of wisdom though.
Right but the inquiries that we all seek and share here will be lost. The contemplative "does God exist" or "I think therefore I am" will too, be lost in the rubble of human civilization. True, it would be a different type of wisdom but it would seem that the investigative inquiries and all of the historical elements that make up modern philosophical thought will be all lost.
We are doing almost the same today as they have done for the last few thousand years, anywhere language exists they will continue to discuss the same topics.
Quoting Anaxagoras
Maybe it will change to "Why did god do this to us?". Or "I am therefore I must think to survive".
Quoting Anaxagoras
There would be a great deal of loss of knowledge maybe, but humans will still have to eventually ponder the answers to the same questions. It might take a couple of hundred years or even a couple of thousand but philosophy will always be a part of humanity. Maybe they will come up with better, more intelligent answers than we have.
Any world changing event that leaves even small groups of humans will still not wipe out all of technology. Finding out how to make it work again will be the biggest problem they will face, and no I do not mean the internet or even electricity, I mean food production.
What you're proposing has already happened, and here we are.
No it hasn't. I'm talking about a catastrophe with all of our knowledge, and technology as we have today because it is from technology that we have advanced much in philosophical knowledge regarding the world.
Philosophy doesn't require technology, and technology hasn't advanced philosophy, it's made it less useful. What would a "knowledge and technology catastrophe" look like?
We have advanced in scientific knowledge but I don't think philosophy has come too far in the last few thousand years. There are new ideas, and as always their respective opposing arguments. There are new perspectives, some of which have come about through technology, but technology and science are separate entities. Whilst they work hand in hand to confound the two is a mistake.
Philosophy and the history of philosophy are two different things, the first is not 100% dependent on the second.
Technology and the history of technology cannot be separated the first is based 100% on the second.
As you stated, it has already happened. Civilizations have been wiped out with all of there knowledge by barbarian hordes that destroy everything in their path including libraries that contain centuries of information. But the survivors sometimes have started again with the little that was left.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_destroyed_libraries
The burning of the Alexandria library was a technological and philosophical catastrophe, and it didn't make philosophy disappear. Short of extinction, there's nothing to stop philosophy in its tracks.
It does today because humanity very much depends on technology. We also depend on technology to deflect asteroids from hitting earth.
We are talking about an asteroid hitting earth which results in a catastrophic event.
I see
Technology doesn't philosophize, and technology can't save us from cataclysm indefinitely.
Technology is an extension of man's thought. You destroy that you destroy every trace of man's genius. Again, we are talking about a catastrophe.
That's false, genius is organic, technology isn't an "extension of genius" any more than dirt is an extension of ants. Will ants never build another hill if you step on their hill? A catastrophe, what catastrophe, with the exception of extinction, we'll continue to have ideas and build things, it's compulsive.
Technology is the result of man's intelligence/intellect, not an extension of it. Man created the technology from nothing and if humanity one day ends up with no technology then it will start all over again.
I don't see how there isn't an extension of thought/intellect/intelligence in a building designed by an architect.
Quoting Sir2u
Depends on which humans survive. If a catastrophe happens and people like the Sentinelese survive I doubt we will see technology of our kind again.
Why? 10,000 years ago we were all like the Sentinelese. And yet here we are now.
A building is the results of his thought process, his thoughts do not continue into the building.
Quoting Anaxagoras
Someone beat me to the answer.
Quoting Michael
:up:
How will it go to nonexistence, when nonexistence doesn't exist?