What philosophy is closest to the truth? (Please show your work.)

This is the question I would like to discuss. I am aware that many of you think there is no closest-to-the-truth philosophy, and many of you disagree about which philosophy is closest. That’s what makes this question interesting. If the answer were obvious, there would be no need to discuss it. As a pragmatist, I think that useful philosophies are the best kind of philosophies. So let’s understand useful to mean closest to the truth. If we want to know what is closest to the truth, we should compare the truth value of each philosophy to every other philosophy. A given philosophy is closest to the truth if it is more useful than every other philosophy - not necessarily more useful than every other philosophy in every regard (although it may be), but more useful than every other philosophy when we consider every aspect of the philosophy. So we can’t just compare philosophies in a single regard (e.g., which philosophy is most true in its thoughts on free will) but rather we need to consider all aspects of the philosophy: epistemology and metaphysics and ethics and aesthetics and logic and philosophy of science, etc. Understood in this way, the question isn’t which philosophy is closest to the truth in a single regard, but which philosophy is closest to the truth when we consider all aspects of the philosophy. We’re not trying to ask which philosophy of science is best or which aesthetics is best, but which philosophy as a whole is closest to the truth. We begin by comparing useful philosophies to less useful philosophies. We can say with certainty, for example, that Aristotle is closer to the truth than Mein Kampf, or that Kant is closer to the truth than the Principia Discordia. So we begin with the easy comparisons: (1) useful philosophies vs. less useful philosophies. Then we compare the more useful philosophies to each other: useful Western philosophies vs. useful Eastern philosophies, for example, or analytic philosophies vs. continental philosophies. But we can’t just compare the most useful Western philosophy to the most useful Eastern philosophy. That’s not enough. We need to compare the overall truth value of Western philosophies to the overall truth value of Eastern philosophies. Or the overall truth value of analytic philosophies to the overall truth value of continental philosophies. So we need a method that will allow us to assess the overall truth value of each philosophy, and then we can compare Western philosophies to Eastern philosophies and analytic philosophies to continental philosophies. Now I know this is a very difficult task. It is certainly not something that we can do without controversy. However, I think we can do it, and I think we should try, because I think that the philosophy that is closest to the truth is of considerable importance. Here is a simple method that we can use to assess the overall truth value of a philosophy: 1. **Assess the truth value of a philosopher.** We can compare useful philosophers to less useful philosophers. For example, we can compare Descartes and Kant (useful philosophers) to Mein Kampf (less useful philosophers). 2. **Assess the truth value of a school of thought.** From the useful philosophers, we can identify schools of thought, e.g., empiricism (from Bacon and Locke and Hume) and rationalism (from Descartes and Kant and Leibniz). Then we can compare empiricism and rationalism to Mein Kampf and Principia Discordia and other less useful schools of thought. 3. **Assess the truth value of a tradition of thought.** Analytic philosophy and Continental philosophy are the two traditions of thought in Western philosophy. From the schools of thought in Western philosophy, we have two traditions of thought: empiricism/rationalism (now called analytic philosophy) and romanticism/phenomenology/hermeneutics (now called continental philosophy). We can compare the overall value of Western analytic philosophy to the overall value of Western continental philosophy. We can also compare Western traditions (analytic/continental) to non-Western traditions of thought (e.g., classical Chinese philosophy, classical Indian philosophy, Islamic philosophy). 4. **Assess the truth value of Eastern and Western philosophy.** From the traditions of thought, we can identify Eastern and Western philosophies, and compare them. Western philosophy is composed of the various traditions of Western thought (analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, etc.) and Eastern philosophy is composed of the various traditions of Eastern thought (e.g., classical Chinese philosophy, classical Indian philosophy, Islamic philosophy). We can compare the overall value of Western philosophy to the overall value of Eastern philosophy. 5. **Assess the truth value of world philosophy.** From Eastern and Western philosophies, we get world philosophy, which includes the traditions and schools of thought and philosophers from all over the world. World philosophy is the overall collection of useful philosophies - Western analytic/continental, Eastern Chinese/Indian/Islamic philosophies, indigenous philosophies, etc. This is our final assessment. Which philosophy is closest to the truth when we consider the overall truth value of world philosophy. I believe that this method is sound. Now we need to apply this method, and this is the hard part, because we can’t do it without controversy. # Assessing useful philosophies and less useful philosophies: There are many useful philosophies, and there are many less useful philosophies. It’s not too difficult to identify many of the useful philosophies and less useful philosophies. Useful philosophies include those of the ancient Greeks (Socrates/Plato/Aristotle, Epicurus, Pyrrho the Skeptic) and modern philosophers like Descartes/Leibniz/Kant (rationalism) and Bacon/Locke/Hume (empiricism) and pragmatism and phenomenology. Useful philosophies also include ancient Eastern philosophies, such as classical Chinese philosophy (Taoism/Confucianism/Mohism) and classical Indian philosophy (Hinduism/Buddhism/Jainism) and Islamic philosophy. Less useful philosophies include Mein Kampf, The Prince, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morals. Less useful philosophies also include certain religious philosophies (e.g., biblical literalism), certain ideological philosophies (e.g., Stalinist Marxism), and certain pseudophilosophies (e.g., the Principia Discordia). There are also philosophies that are somewhere in between very useful and not very useful - philosophies like Stoicism and Vedanta and the various ideologies (Marxism, libertarianism, etc.) and postmodern philosophies. So we have assessed the truth value of useful philosophies and less useful philosophies. We have done this by comparing the useful philosophers to the less useful philosophers. # Assessing schools of thought: Next we assess the truth value of schools of thought. There are many schools of thought in Western philosophy, including empiricism/rationalism, romanticism/stoicism, phenomenology/hermeneutics, and pragmatism/Neo-Pragmatism. There are many schools of thought in Eastern philosophy, including Buddhism/Hinduism/Jainism and Taoism/Confucianism/Mohism. Many of the schools of thought are very useful (e.g., empiricism/rationalism, phenomenology/hermeneutics, pragmatism/Neo-Pragmatism) and many are not very useful (e.g., postmodernism, Marxism, Stoicism/Vedanta). We can now assess the truth value of schools of thought by comparing useful schools of thought to less useful schools of thought. # Assessing traditions of thought in Western philosophy: We have identified two main traditions of thought in Western philosophy. (1) The first tradition arose in classical Greece (500bc) and developed on the continent of Europe until Kant (1700s) and then moved to England and the U.S. where it became analytic philosophy today. From classical Greece to Kant, this tradition is composed of ancient Greek philosophy (Socrates to Epicurus, 500bc-100bc), scholasticism (1000-1500), and modern philosophy (1500-1800). Today this tradition is known as **analytic philosophy**. (2) The second tradition arose in classical Greece (500bc) and developed on the continent of Europe until Kant (1700s) and then separated from the first tradition and developed on the continent of Europe until today where it is known as **continental philosophy**. # Assessing Western philosophy overall: We have identified the two overall traditions of thought in Western philosophy: **analytic philosophy** and **continental philosophy**. Of the two traditions, I believe that analytic philosophy is closer to the truth. There are several reasons for this. Analytic philosophy grew out of the scientific revolution, and this gives it a bias toward science and empiricism, which are useful for discovering truth. Analytic philosophy is also more interested in individualism, which allows for more diverse perspectives and critics to flourish. Continental philosophy grew out of the romantic movement, and this gives it a bias toward subjectivism, which isn’t very useful for discovering truth. Continental philosophy also focuses less on individualism, and more on collectivism, which leads to fewer diverse perspectives and critics - and this is not as useful for discovering truth. # Assessing traditions of thought in Eastern philosophy: Eastern philosophy is composed of four overall traditions of thought: **classical Chinese philosophy**, **classical Indian philosophy**, **Islamic philosophy**, and **Japanese philosophy**. Of the four traditions, I believe that classical Chinese philosophy is closest to the truth. There are several reasons for this. Classical Chinese philosophy grew out of the same kind of cultural and historical context as classical Greek philosophy, and this has allowed it to

What philosophy is closest to the truth? (Please show your work.)

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