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I can easily imagine an Earth with no philosophers after say Aristotle that is functionally identical to our current one.


Minus evidence-based science, free markets, government of the people, freedom of religion and the end of slavery. Yep, exactly the same.


Might as well attribute all of that to Christianity. That claim probably holds as much water.


Attributing science and freedom of religion to Christianity? That's a bold thought.


And a correct one. There is a reason these things did not develop until when and where they did...


Pinning concepts like "science" and "freedom" to a specific era is a silly endeavor. But if you had to, neither would originate in Christian Europe: science as a concept predates Christianity by at least 800 years; the thing we call "freedom" today didn't take shape until 1600 years into Christian Europe's development.

Christianity, like just about every religion, has made invaluable contributions to philosophy. But it's ahistorical, to an embarrassing degree, to attribute such broad concepts and bodies of inquiry to it.


Wow. I guess you're not familiar with any philosophers other than Aristotle, otherwise you could never make such a statement.


Please elaborate


There should be a rule where you're not allowed to phrase a question as a false statement that insults a lot of people...


Without philosophy, there is no Hegel, without Hegel there is no Marx, without Marx there is no Lenin, without Lenin, there is no Stalin, without Stalin there is no Cold War, without the Cold War there's probably not a war in Ukraine right now, and without a war in Ukraine I wouldn't be worried about my gas bill. I think that's pretty concrete.

(Just a single, rather obvious example. Easy enough to find others.)




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