What about when the topic isn't quantitative? What about when it is, say, a history PhD? Or, like, a Geology PhD even?
And more importantly, what if I don't know what the fuck they are talking about? Do I have to be an expert in geology? What if I don't know anything about geology? How am I supposed to know who to trust? I'm guessing the answer is "educate yourself", but I don't need no god-damn geology education, I just need to know some detail about geology for something or other: what then? Do I have to learn about an entire field just to know who to trust about a specific detail? Do I need to do that about everything? What about, say, my medical providers? I don't know anything about medicine. Should I just assume that whoever sounds more right to me is really the right person, education be darned? Or should I attempt to educate myself, maybe doing a good job maybe a bad job, and then decide that I know who is a good doctor and who isn't? More importantly, how the fuck can I ever know that someone knows more than I do? Or should I just know everything myself? Should I know how to cut hair to get my hair cut? Must I know how to build bridges to use them?
My point is quite simple: People have limited time on this earth, and they don't got time to know everything. No one knows everything, I'd bet very few even know most about everything. Instead we hear explanations, metaphors, simplified ways of explaining things from people who actually know how these things work, and we tell ourselves that that is good enough. And if it works, it is good enough!
Most people don't need to know how routers work, we have people to do that for us (and I am one of them! sometimes...). But the people (Network Associates) who know how routers work don't understand everything about the process either. They understand pieces of it, simplified versions of the parts that aren't as relevant to them. The IT guy might not actually know how things are encoded down there, but he sure knows how to fix it such as to get a result he wants. Who actually knows how it works? The people who build them. But they probably don't really know either? They know how to build them, but not why they work. So then we have designers; but what do they know? Because they know how to design routers, does that mean they know how to build them? Maybe. How to install them? Probably. Do they do any of that themselves? Nope. They know the details that are important to them, the limitations and things they can work with; and most importantly, they know that someone out there already knows, and they can ask. Same thing applies to anything. Do Doctors understand insurance? No. They know what they have to deal with relating to insurance, but they don't necessarily understand it (maybe individual doctors know). Insurance people probably understand most of insurance (probably), but certainly not how medicine works. And patients don't really understand either, they just know how they interact with what matters to the patient (their health, happiness, and financials), which are things the doctors and insurance people don't (and can't) really know. And I'll bet you none of these people understands router, no matter how much they rely on routers; nor do any of the router people understand their health or insurance or the law.
One must not be so overwhelmed by this democratization of thought that they insist that everyone knows (or should know) as much or the same as everyone else. Immortals, maybe, could have the time to learn and understand everything that goes into their lives. Not mortals. But people not only believe they should be experts on everything, but sometimes even that they already are! I mean, would you insist that you know more than doctors about the body because you have a body? This is, at heart, what is wrong with Philosophy (and a PhD is, after all, a Doctor of Philosophy). Because everyone thinks, everyone believes they know something about thinking, but that's no more true than because everyone breathes, everyone knows about their lungs, or their heart, or about anything.
Rant over.
EDIT: Also, it appears that OP is no longer with us. In the end, it seemed that it was the mod's vote that mattered.
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Topic: Philosophy Thread 2: Electric Boogaloo (Read 22529 times)