Right here’s one mind-set about progress in philosophy.
Having decided that progress in philosophy has been too sluggish, the leaders of the Galactic Philosophy Federation (GPF) tackle the mission of bettering it. Realizing that the sooner an intervention will be made, different issues equal, the extra progress is prone to outcome, they start by contemplating modifications that may be applied instantly. Sadly, there usually are not many inspiring choices. They then find out about a brand new invention, the “Handed to the Previous” (P2P) machine, which permits folks within the current to ship messages again in time. The previous is sooner than the current, so, they determine, we might in precept have much more progress in philosophy if we modified one thing prior to now.
Nonetheless in beta, P2P has sure limits. First, it might solely ship brief messages—not more than round 600 characters (roughly the dimensions of the earlier paragraph). Second, the current previous is unavailable as a vacation spot—messages must be despatched to a time previous to 1900. And third, it is extremely costly. Nonetheless, they discover it promising and resolve to attempt to make it the case that there was (and maybe will proceed to be) extra progress in philosophy by sending messages again in time to earlier philosophers.
When it comes time to finances for this undertaking, the GPF’s leaders discover, alas, that they have the funds for to fund just one message. Hopeful that one message might make a distinction, they flip to the matter of deciding on its content material, recipient, and timing. For this, they ask you, the philosophers of the world, for ideas:
“Given the intention of bettering philosophy’s progress, what transient message would you ship to which previous thinker?”
Understand that the message have to be round 600 characters or much less, and that the message have to be despatched again to a yr previous to 1900; if it issues, be particular about when within the thinker’s life they need to obtain the message.
(The query is deliberately open-ended in just a few methods, and “progress” is deliberately left unspecified.)
What’s your reply?
