specialists

[Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt]

Jhildt sez:

> To think philosophically is human.  The tendency to philosophical expression
> is certainly not limited to academics.   
> 
> Werner v B. was a smart and observant man.  I'd listen to him carefully on
> any number of subjects outside of his "field."

Sure - if he says something on rockets, you'd be pretty safe to 
accept it. On other things, check with some experts before you go 
'wow'. By sheer coincidence I happen to have some quotes handy. Try 
and see if you can agree that they are a little problematic.

     In the eighteenth century, philosophers considered the whole of human 
knowledge, including science, to be their field and discussed questions such 
as: Did the universe have a beginning? However, in the nineteenth and 
twentieth centuries, science became too technical and mathematical for the
philosophers, or anyone else except a few specialists. Philosophers reduced 
the scope of their inquiries so much that Wittgenstein, the most famous 
philosopher of this century, said, 'The sole remaining task for philosophy is 
the analysis of language.' What a comedown from the great tradition of 
philosophy from Aristotle to Kant! 
                                  (Hawking, A Brief History of Time, 174/5).

     The causal way of looking at things ... always answers only the question 
"Why?", but never the question "To what end?" No utility principle and 
no natural selection will make us get over that. However, if someone asks 
"To what purpose should we help one another, make life easier for each
other, make beautiful music or have inspired thoughts?", he would have to 
be told: "If you don't feel it, no one can explain it to you." Without this 
primary feeling we are nothing and had better not live at all.	
			          (Einstein, 1 September 1919)


hg
hag at iafrica.com