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What is the worst idea in philosophy?

jay gw

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What do you consider to be the most dangerous or worst idea in philosophy/theology?

I think one is "original sin". The idea that man is fatally flawed by things outside his control, Adam and Eve's behavior that tainted mankind forever, unless you obey a church's teachings you are hopeless etc., has to be one of the worst ideas ever.

Nietzsche's "superman" is not far behind as the worst idea. Totally unrealistic and basically inspires anyone stronger to act amorally. The Nazis loved it.

Thomas Hobbes inspired the US Constitution. His idea that people will act evilly unless restrained by checks and balances and a community is not that nice of an idea. Even though it's probably true.

The Hindu idea of "castes" has condemned hundreds of millions of people to do exactly what their fathers did for a living, and not to marry anyone outside their category. This is an example of a bad idea acted on and turned into an institution.

The all time worst idea, or set of ideas, is that mankind cannot fend for itself, and that the world is governed by gods/forces that you must sacrifice to. All scientific inquiry pretty much stops at that point. Most cultures never even had any science and that was one reason.

The criteria for 'worst' idea is how much people have acted on it and some harm has come out of it. Or nonsense/confusion/chaos has come out of it.
 
That there is a grand purpose to existence, and it is discernible.
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Very nice. Not nice, but nice that you mentioned it....that kind of nice.

And, hate to say it, but I think "multiculturalism" is an idea that's being really warped and twisted. It's just not true that more cultures make a society/community better, and that any cultural mix produces the same result as any other.

Cultures are not Legos that fit together in any old way.
 
jay gw said:
Very nice. Not nice, but nice that you mentioned it....that kind of nice.

And, hate to say it, but I think "multiculturalism" is an idea that's being really warped and twisted. It's just not true that more cultures make a society/community better, and that any cultural mix produces the same result as any other.

Cultures are not Legos that fit together in any old way.
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What is true is that multiculturalism, as realized in the US, leads to homogeny of culture over time. Only those cultures truly separated from the norm seem to resist this cultural blanding, but at the same time, these cultures evolve as well and become something different anyway.

Where multiculturalism succeeds is in exposing people to ideas and modes of thought not their own. Think how very closed-minded many Christians can be, locked away in all-Christian communities, never even once challenging their thoughts on religion or culture. Then expose them to other faiths, give them a chance to see some of the rest of the world - the enlightenment is a beautiful thing to observe.

Forced multiculturalism, though, is as bad as segregation in some ways. In others, it's the only solution to stubborn racism.
 
DeCartes and solipsism. Leads to a bunch of psuedo-philosophers, such as Ian and Kumar.
 
I just want to make a distinction. The "original sin" is a religious concept, the same goes for Hindu castes, mostly any god there is and afterlife ideas.

Philosophy is a serious matter, far from those things. So, I guess, you wanted to say the worst idea in religion?

As for the worst idea in philosophy, is that we can understand what we say, that "meaning" is a non problematic concept.
 
The stupidest idea in philosophy is the First Cause and its variations. E.g:

Premise: everything has a cause
Therefore: something exists that doesn't have a cause (contradicting the premise)
Corollary: This thing is God (non sequitur)

There's also Descartes' proof of his own sanity. That's dumb. Bishop Berkeley's manoevres to prove the existence of God are pretty darn stupid. And I've just been rereading CS Lewis... oh my word.

But I still hand the palm to the First Cause argument for having a conclusion which falsifies the premise. Nice.
 
Marquis de Carabas said:
That there is a grand purpose to existence, and it is discernible.
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This is it right here. Kick it up a level to Purposeful Nature, and all other muddleheadedness flows therefrom.
 
jay gw said:
Nietzsche's "superman" is not far behind as the worst idea. Totally unrealistic and basically inspires anyone stronger to act amorally. The Nazis loved it.
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In fairness to old Freddy, the ubermensch business was grossly misinterpreted. "Beyond good and evil" doesn't mean acting anyhow is justified, it means that one has evolved beyond those concepts. His philosophy wasn't written for easy reading, and his style, while brilliant, managed to be unfortunately obscure and sometimes mystical.

It didn't help that his Nazi sister did some selective editing of his works in order to promote her favored views, after Freddy became an imbecile and couldn't stop her.

The Nazis did like Zarathustra, the more poetic of his works, while most of them remained blissfully ignorant of his denunciations of nationalism, Germans, and particularly German nationalism. Likewise they would have appreciated his early work praising Wagner, and ignored his later attacks on Wagner, after their falling out.
 
Re: Re: What is the worst idea in philosophy?

TragicMonkey said:
In fairness to old Freddy, the ubermensch business was grossly misinterpreted. "Beyond good and evil" doesn't mean acting anyhow is justified, it means that one has evolved beyond those concepts. His philosophy wasn't written for easy reading, and his style, while brilliant, managed to be unfortunately obscure and sometimes mystical.

It didn't help that his Nazi sister did some selective editing of his works in order to promote her favored views, after Freddy became an imbecile and couldn't stop her.

The Nazis did like Zarathustra, the more poetic of his works, while most of them remained blissfully ignorant of his denunciations of nationalism, Germans, and particularly German nationalism. Likewise they would have appreciated his early work praising Wagner, and ignored his later attacks on Wagner, after their falling out.
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Thank you.

The "Superman" ideal of Nietzsche is about overcoming one's own limitations and flaws, not about oppressing others or some earned or innate superiority over others. There's a lot in it that is similar to Buddhism, in some ways.
 
Re: Re: What is the worst idea in philosophy?

TragicMonkey said:
In fairness to old Freddy, the ubermensch business was grossly misinterpreted. "Beyond good and evil" doesn't mean acting anyhow is justified, it means that one has evolved beyond those concepts. His philosophy wasn't written for easy reading, and his style, while brilliant, managed to be unfortunately obscure and sometimes mystical.

It didn't help that his Nazi sister did some selective editing of his works in order to promote her favored views, after Freddy became an imbecile and couldn't stop her.

The Nazis did like Zarathustra, the more poetic of his works, while most of them remained blissfully ignorant of his denunciations of nationalism, Germans, and particularly German nationalism. Likewise they would have appreciated his early work praising Wagner, and ignored his later attacks on Wagner, after their falling out.
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Nietzsche has yet to live down the besmirtching of his reputation by that proto-nazi bitch of a sister and the rest of the Bayreuth crowd. By the end, he hated everything German: food, language, etc; and claimed to be of Polish ancestry. He chose to live in Italy afterall. Ever compared the Kaufmann translations to prior ones endorsed by Elizabeth?
 
Re: Re: Re: What is the worst idea in philosophy?

hgc said:
Nietzsche has yet to live down the besmirtching of his reputation by that proto-nazi bitch of a sister and the rest of the Bayreuth crowd. By the end, he hated everything German: food, language, etc; and claimed to be of Polish ancestry. He chose to live in Italy afterall. Ever compared the Kaufmann translations to prior ones endorsed by Elizabeth?
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Just bits. But I couldn't tell which bits were different to mean something, and which were just old-fashioned vocabulary and grammar.

I blush to admit it, but during my final year of college I was so enamored of old Freddy that I attempted to learn German on my own just to read him in the original.

He's still one of my favorite philosophers, but I've gotten calmer over the years. My own views are sort of a combination of Nietzsche and Taoism. One day I shall write them all down, and in future centuries, Philosophy 101 shall include my Discourse on Monkey, Hammer of the Monkeys, and The Revenge of Monkey Mountain.
 
My own philosophy has mostly all been written down. Trouble is, it's all been distibuted throughout the literature and arts of almost every culture on earth. Putting it all back together is going to take a long time. :)
 
I nominate the strange idea that science and philosophy can not comingle, much of the early work on radiation was printed in the journal Philosophical Magazine.

( :p to Interesting Ian)
 
Dancing David said:
I nominate the strange idea that science and philosophy can not comingle, much of the early work on radiation was printed in the journal Philosophical Magazine.
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I can't believe the question would ever arise, considering it was philosophy that gave birth to science and the scientific method in the first place.

Plus, those wacky ancient Greeks and their atomic theory!
 
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