TITLE:
Oversimplification in Philosophy
AUTHORS:
Randall S. Firestone
KEYWORDS:
Oversimplification, Kant’s Moral Theory, Categorical Imperative, Utilitarianism, Critiques of the Categorical Imperative, Psychological Egoism, Will to Power, Naturalistic Fallacy, Monism, Analogies, Analogical Arguments, Watch Analogy, Violinist Analogy, Drowning Child Analogy
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.9 No.3,
August
28,
2019
ABSTRACT: This
paper maintains that oversimplification has been a common and recurring problem
in philosophy that has not only been ignored, but has also gone largely
unnoticed. The paper sets forth various examples of oversimplification which
include the one sentence moral tests proposed by Kant and Mill, moral ideas
such as psychological egoism and Nietzsche’s will to power which oversimplify
the complexity and variety of moral motivations, the Naturalistic Fallacy
whereby it is claimed that what is natural is thereby good, various monisms
beginning with the pre-Socratics and including Hegel, and our modern-day
preferred method of oversimplification by the use of analogical arguments. The
paper argues that these oversimplifications have come at considerable expense
as they have often kept us trapped in dead-end and counterproductive theories
and perspectives which have taken us away from truth and understanding instead
of toward them.