Antiphilosophy is an opposition to traditional philosophy.Penelope Maddy, "Wittgenstein's Anti-Philosophy of Mathematics", Johannes Czermak and Klaus Paul, eds., ''Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics'', 1993, http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~pjmaddy/bio/wittgenstein%27s%20anti-philosophy.pdfJan Riis Flor, "Den senere Wittgenstein", Poul Lübcke, ed., ''Vor tids filosofi: Videnskab og sprog'', Politikens forlag, 1982 It may be characterized as anti-theoretical, critical of

a priori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...

justifications, and may see common philosophical problems as misconceptions that are to be dissolved. Common strategies may involve forms of

relativism Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. There ...

skepticism Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by I ...

, or

pluralism Pluralism denotes a diversity of views or stands rather than a single approach or method. Pluralism or pluralist may refer to: Politics and law * Pluralism (political philosophy), the acknowledgement of a diversity of political systems * Plur ...

. The term has been used as a denigrating word but is also used with more neutral or positive connotations.Penelope Maddy, "Wittgenstein's Anti-Philosophy of Mathematics", Johannes Czermak and Klaus Paul, eds., ''Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics'', 1993, http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~pjmaddy/bio/wittgenstein%27s%20anti-philosophy.pdfJan Riis Flor, "Den senere Wittgenstein", Poul Lübcke, ed., ''Vor tids filosofi: Videnskab og sprog'', Politikens forlag, 1982 Boris Groys's 2012 book ''Introduction to Antiphilosophy'' discusses thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Shestov,

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ca ...

, and Benjamin, characterizing their work as privileging life and action over thought.

Examples of antiphilosophical positions

Ethics

The antiphilosopher could argue that, with regard to ethics, there is only practical, ordinary reasoning. Therefore, it is wrong to a priori superimpose overarching ideas of what is good for philosophical reasons. For example, it is wrong to blanketly assume that only happiness matters, as in

utilitarianism In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...

. This is not to say though that some utilitarian-like argument can't be valid when it comes to what is right in some particular case.

Continuum hypothesis

Consider the

continuum hypothesis In mathematics, the continuum hypothesis (abbreviated CH) is a hypothesis about the possible sizes of infinite sets. It states that or equivalently, that In Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice (ZFC), this is equivalent ...

, stating that there is no set with size strictly between the size of the natural numbers and the size of the real numbers. One idea is that the set universe ought to be rich, with many sets, which leads to the continuum hypothesis being false. This richness argument, the antiphilosopher might argue, is purely philosophical, and groundless, and therefore should be dismissed; maintaining that the continuum hypothesis should be settled by mathematical arguments. In particular it could be the case that the question isn't mathematically meaningful or useful, that the hypothesis is neither true, nor false. It is then wrong to stipulate, a priori and for philosophical reasons, that the continuum hypothesis is true or false.

Antiphilosophies

Wittgenstein's metaphilosophy

The views of

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian- British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is cons ...

, specifically his

metaphilosophy Metaphilosophy, sometimes called the philosophy of philosophy, is "the investigation of the nature of philosophy". Its subject matter includes the aims of philosophy, the boundaries of philosophy, and its methods. Thus, while philosophy characte ...

, could be said to be antiphilosophy. In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Paul Horwich Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

points to Wittgenstein's rejection of philosophy as traditionally and currently practiced and his "insistence that it can't give us the kind of knowledge generally regarded as its raison d'être". Horwich goes on to argue that: Horwich concludes that, according to Wittgenstein, philosophy "must avoid theory-construction and instead be merely 'therapeutic,' confined to exposing the irrational assumptions on which theory-oriented investigations are based and the irrational conclusions to which they lead". Moreover, these antiphilosophical views are central to Wittgenstein, Horwich argues.

Pyrrhonism

Pyrrhonism Pyrrhonism is a school of philosophical skepticism founded by Pyrrho in the fourth century BCE. It is best known through the surviving works of Sextus Empiricus, writing in the late second century or early third century CE. History Pyrrho of E ...

has been considered an antiphilosophy.Pascal Massie, "Philosophy and Ataraxia in Sextus Empiricus" ''PEITHO / EXAMINA ANTIQUA'' 1 ( 4 ) / 2013 p.212 https://philarchive.org/archive/MASPAA-7

Notes

References

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