The
fundamental linguistic distinction of subject/predicate marks-at
least for Western civilization-the entire approach. Expectations
of efficiency pertinent to the human scale leading to the
Industrial Revolution affected the condition of philosophy. At
this juncture, philosophers realized the practical aspect of the
discipline. Marx thought that it would empower people and help
them change the world: "Until now philosophers interpreted the
world; it's time to change it." And change it did, but in ways
different from what he and his followers anticipated. The hard
grip of reified language turned the workers' paradise into a
mental torture chamber.
Once the underlying structure (reflected in the requirements of
literacy) changed, philosophy changed as well, also freeing
itself from the categories of language that molded its
speculative discourse. Nevertheless, its institutions (education,
professional associations and conferences) continue to pursue
goals and functions peculiar to literate expectations. This
prompted a strong movement of philosophic dissidence (Feyerabend
and Lakatos are the main representatives), attuned to the
practical need of a philosophic praxis aware of the relative
nature of its assertions.
Multi-valued logic, the logic of relations, fuzzy set theory, and
computation in its algorithmic and non-algorithmic forms (based
on neural networks) allow philosophers to free themselves from
the various dualisms embedded in the language of philosophy.
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