Hi , Horse, Personally i think that Hawking is pointing out towards the given Fact that "the philosophers" and Philosophy for these moments in time are hiding real well, times have changed for the last 30 years, and people of great importance like Francis F Coppola, Steven Spielberg, other great cineasts need to beg for money from the banks to get funded in the creative proces. Same goes for Authors , Pirsig(guggenheim) to stay alive and be creative. The marketingboys of these entity's are imported in the model at the same time.and they always have the right of the final cut. What Hawking is doeing is stirring some controverse's to get maximum media attention for launching his commercials. Dawkins uses the same formula, and others , it's a clausule embedded within the product. They act as fundraisers for science-budgettes, and they do not even bother with it.
Not attached to this , but interwoven, Hawking is cutting edge, mainstream science and the complete scientifical world is holding his breath when he speaks or presentes a new model, like his interpretations of the many worlds possibility. On his work on Black holes , he is truly very near to the Nobelprize.But sadly it is true that lhc is limping behind. The possibility that it will be a Nobel-posthume eventually, is not unthinkable. The biggest controverse Hawking always is stirring, is the ruling out of the possibility of the presence of a creator in his models, sometimes he tunes back a little bit ,going full throttle at other moments. This is the main concern of the creationists, That Hawking will discover the always dynamical model of the universe, no place for a creator. He is literally saying, "what place for a creator, this will give us a halted universe, nothing to discover anymore." This is about the mainstream idea he is launching--, he has no intention what so ever to release the throttle, just to pleasure the creationists. He is very well aware of the fact that some are still denying fossils, science, evolution, or are calling evolution one of god's instruments. So this is the main cause of the controverse. Now in regard of the question he launches about where are the great Philosophers nowedays? My opinion?- where are they , since Pirsig?,i cannot show or produce them, they seem dissapeared, adopted by marketingstatistics. Been reading some GG Marguez, in regard of his Nobelprise long ago, as an attempt to find some hidden philosophy, i did not found it in his work, he is very dissapointing. I repeat , where are they? what are the developments since Pirsig?....i do not think that Hawking is completely wrong. Your proposal, Horse , is better than Hawking's stampede, he should know better, trying to be complementary. There is however no need to be surprised when Hawking or Dawkins will chance course next week or at the moment of one of their new publications.This depends on the marketingmodels. The best option for Hawking is to stick at what he is good in, nl, black holes and the multiple worlds interpretation,the informationparadox.He is unbeatable at his field(s). As philosopher he does not exist. Adrie 2010/9/15 Horse <ho...@darkstar.uk.net> > Hi Steve > > Perhaps scientists haven't kept up with philosophy as well as they could > have and thus have a poor understanding of current philosophical positions. > Dawkins has said similar things about philosophy as well if I remember > correctly. But then he's said some fairly odd things in general. > I think to a great extent those that practice science often see philosophy > in general and metaphysics in particular as a competing oppositional system > and so get very edgy and dismissive of it. Although in some cases I can > hardly blame them when the philosophy is poor. > I think the more enlightened practitioners of both science and philosophy > regard them as complementary and not oppositional. > In my opinion of course. > > Horse > > > On 15/09/2010 15:25, Steven Peterson wrote: > >> Hi All, >> >> What did Hawking mean when he wrote "philosophy is dead"? >> >> >> > From new book: >> "We each exist but for a a short time, and in that time explore but a >> small part of the whole universe. But humans are a curious species. We >> wonder, we seek answers. Living in this vast world that is by turns >> kind and cruel, and gazing at the immense heavens above, people have >> always asked a multitude of questions: How can we understand the world >> in which we find ourselves? How does the universe behave? What is the >> nature of reality? Where did all this come from? Did the universe need >> a creator? Most of us do not spend most of our time worry about these >> questions, but almost all of us worry about them some of the time. >> >> Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is >> dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, >> particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch >> of discovery in our quest for knowledge. HTe purpose of this book is >> to give the answers that are suggested by recent discoveries and >> theoretical advances. They lead us to a new picture of the universe >> and our place in it that is very different than the traditional one, >> and different even from the picture we might have painted just a >> decade or two ago. Still, the first sketches of the new concept can be >> traced back almost a century." >> Moq_Discuss mailing list >> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. >> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org >> Archives: >> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ >> http://moq.org/md/archives.html >> >> > -- > > "Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production > deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." > — Frank Zappa > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html > -- parser Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html