• Anaxagoras
    433
    Supposed an asteroid (insert diameter) impacts earth and life as we know it at least for humans is destroyed and although the impact devastates the human population as well as the land itself, it is not enough to destroy humanity. Suppose humanity somehow survived, and managed to have the capacity to rebuild, does the nature of philosophy cease to exist based upon the human condition? Of course the historical elements of philosophy may cease, elements such as Aristotle's Lyceum, or Athenian Agora, or the Acropolis of Athens will be gone but will philosophy remain?
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    but will philosophy remain?Anaxagoras

    Yes, people will always love wisdom.

    It might be a different type of wisdom though.
  • Anaxagoras
    433
    Yes, people will always love wisdom.

    It might be a different type of wisdom though.
    Sir2u

    Right but the inquiries that we all seek and share here will be lost. The contemplative "does God exist" or "I think therefore I am" will too, be lost in the rubble of human civilization. True, it would be a different type of wisdom but it would seem that the investigative inquiries and all of the historical elements that make up modern philosophical thought will be all lost.
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    Right but the inquiries that we all seek and share here will be lost.Anaxagoras

    We are doing almost the same today as they have done for the last few thousand years, anywhere language exists they will continue to discuss the same topics.

    The contemplative "does God exist" or "I think therefore I am" will too, be lost in the rubble of human civilization.Anaxagoras

    Maybe it will change to "Why did god do this to us?". Or "I am therefore I must think to survive".

    True, it would be a different type of wisdom but it would seem that the investigative inquiries and all of the historical elements that make up modern philosophical thought will be all lost.Anaxagoras

    There would be a great deal of loss of knowledge maybe, but humans will still have to eventually ponder the answers to the same questions. It might take a couple of hundred years or even a couple of thousand but philosophy will always be a part of humanity. Maybe they will come up with better, more intelligent answers than we have.

    Any world changing event that leaves even small groups of humans will still not wipe out all of technology. Finding out how to make it work again will be the biggest problem they will face, and no I do not mean the internet or even electricity, I mean food production.
  • whollyrolling
    551


    What you're proposing has already happened, and here we are.
  • Anaxagoras
    433
    What you're proposing has already happened, and here we are.whollyrolling

    No it hasn't. I'm talking about a catastrophe with all of our knowledge, and technology as we have today because it is from technology that we have advanced much in philosophical knowledge regarding the world.
  • whollyrolling
    551


    Philosophy doesn't require technology, and technology hasn't advanced philosophy, it's made it less useful. What would a "knowledge and technology catastrophe" look like?
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    No it hasn't. I'm talking about a catastrophe with all of our knowledge, and technology as we have today because it is from technology that we have advanced much in philosophical knowledge regarding the world.Anaxagoras

    We have advanced in scientific knowledge but I don't think philosophy has come too far in the last few thousand years. There are new ideas, and as always their respective opposing arguments. There are new perspectives, some of which have come about through technology, but technology and science are separate entities. Whilst they work hand in hand to confound the two is a mistake.
    Philosophy and the history of philosophy are two different things, the first is not 100% dependent on the second.
    Technology and the history of technology cannot be separated the first is based 100% on the second.
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    Philosophy doesn't require technology, and technology hasn't advanced philosophy, it's made it less useful. What would a "knowledge and technology catastrophe" look like?whollyrolling

    As you stated, it has already happened. Civilizations have been wiped out with all of there knowledge by barbarian hordes that destroy everything in their path including libraries that contain centuries of information. But the survivors sometimes have started again with the little that was left.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_destroyed_libraries
  • whollyrolling
    551


    The burning of the Alexandria library was a technological and philosophical catastrophe, and it didn't make philosophy disappear. Short of extinction, there's nothing to stop philosophy in its tracks.
  • Anaxagoras
    433
    Philosophy doesn't require technology,whollyrolling

    It does today because humanity very much depends on technology. We also depend on technology to deflect asteroids from hitting earth.
  • Anaxagoras
    433
    The burning of the Alexandria library was a technological and philosophical catastrophe, and it didn't make philosophy disappear. Short of extinction, there's nothing to stop philosophy in its tracks.whollyrolling


    We are talking about an asteroid hitting earth which results in a catastrophic event.
  • whollyrolling
    551


    Technology doesn't philosophize, and technology can't save us from cataclysm indefinitely.
  • Anaxagoras
    433
    Technology doesn't philosophize, and technology can't save us from cataclysm indefinitely.whollyrolling


    Technology is an extension of man's thought. You destroy that you destroy every trace of man's genius. Again, we are talking about a catastrophe.
  • whollyrolling
    551


    That's false, genius is organic, technology isn't an "extension of genius" any more than dirt is an extension of ants. Will ants never build another hill if you step on their hill? A catastrophe, what catastrophe, with the exception of extinction, we'll continue to have ideas and build things, it's compulsive.
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    Technology is an extension of man's thought. You destroy that you destroy every trace of man's genius. Again, we are talking about a catastrophe.Anaxagoras

    Technology is the result of man's intelligence/intellect, not an extension of it. Man created the technology from nothing and if humanity one day ends up with no technology then it will start all over again.
  • Anaxagoras
    433
    Technology is the result of man's intelligence/intellect, not an extension of it.Sir2u

    I don't see how there isn't an extension of thought/intellect/intelligence in a building designed by an architect.

    Man created the technology from nothing and if humanity one day ends up with no technology then it will start all over again.Sir2u

    Depends on which humans survive. If a catastrophe happens and people like the Sentinelese survive I doubt we will see technology of our kind again.
  • Michael
    14k
    Depends on which humans survive. If a catastrophe happens and people like the Sentinelese survive I doubt we will see technology of our kind again.Anaxagoras

    Why? 10,000 years ago we were all like the Sentinelese. And yet here we are now.
  • Sir2u
    3.2k
    I don't see how there isn't an extension of thought/intellect/intelligence in a building designed by an architect.Anaxagoras

    A building is the results of his thought process, his thoughts do not continue into the building.

    Depends on which humans survive. If a catastrophe happens and people like the Sentinelese survive I doubt we will see technology of our kind again.Anaxagoras

    Someone beat me to the answer.

    Why? 10,000 years ago we were all like the Sentinelese. And yet here we are now.Michael

    :up:
  • Shamshir
    855
    Philosophy will be.

    How will it go to nonexistence, when nonexistence doesn't exist?
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