Philosophy's Future

RUSSELL BLACKFORD is an Australian philosopher, legal scholar, and literary critic based at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales. His many books include Freedom of Religion and the Secular State (Wiley Blackwell, 2012), The Mystery of Moral Authority (2016) and The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism (2019). DAMIEN BRODERICK is an award-winning Australian science and fiction writer, editor, and critical theorist, and a former Senior Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. He is the author or editor of some 74 books including, as co-editor with Russell Blackford, Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds (Wiley Blackwell, 2014).

• Notes on Contributors ixIntroduction I: Philosophy and the Perils of Progress 1Russell BlackfordIntroduction II: Philosophy on the Inclined Plane 13Damien BroderickPart 1 Roads to Progress in Philosophy 191 Coming Out of the Shade 21Myisha Cherry2 What has Philosophy Ever Done for Us? 31James Ladyman3 Progress and Philosophy 41Noretta Koertge4 Only Connect 51Frank JacksonPart 2 Bumps in the Road, Rabbits in the Landscape 615 Chmess, Abiding Significance, and Rabbit Holes 63Peter Boghossian and James A. Lindsay6 Philosophy as the Evocation of Conceptual Landscapes 75Massimo Pigliucci7 Three Barriers to Philosophical Progress 91Jessica WilsonPart 3 Cautious Optimism 1058 Is there Progress in Philosophy? A Brief Case for Optimism 107Daniel Stoljar9 Is Philosophy Progressing Fast Enough? 119Stuart Brock10 Does Philosophical Progress Matter? 133Richard KamberPart 4 Philosophy and Science 14511 Between Gods and Apes: On the Lack of Scientific and Philosophical Progress 147Mark Walker12 Model]Building in Philosophy 159Timothy Williamson13 Progress in Philosophy and in the Physical Sciences: How Far Does The Analogy Hold? 173Christopher NorrisPart 5 Re-Imagining the Conversation 19114 Philosophy as “Intellectual War of Values” 193Stefan Lorenz Sorgner15 Re]Imagining the Philosophical Conversation 201Karen Green16 David Lewis and the Kangaroo: Graphing Philosophical Progress 213Benj Hellie17 Philosophy, Progress, and Identity 227Ward E. JonesIndex 241

"Cogent and worth reading – particularly the essays by Massimo Pigliucci and Jessica Wilson. Also notable is the fine essay by Myisha Cherry, who argues forcefully that philosophers need to "leave the shade" and express their views clearly in accessible public debate. Hear, hear!"&,dash;Barbara Ellen Hannan, The Philosopher's Magazine