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Much of the study of philosophy is apparently built on examining, explaining, and re-interpreting ideas of past philosophers, going back to Aristotle, Plato, and beyond. While that can be an interesting pursuit as a historical exercise, it seems to me to be an unreliable basis on which to build new ideas about the subjects of traditional interest to philosophers.
Until very recently, philosophers, like all of us, were ignorant of many things that scientists have since discovered and explored in detail, including the chemical basis of life, neuro-science, details of animal and plant behavior and evolution, the interconnectedness of physical, chemical, and biological systems on earth, the vastness and intricacies of the universe, the fine structure of matter and energy, and so on. To explore philosophical ideas without regard to this body of recent scientific knowledge seems an empty game, which may be interesting to some people but is inconsequential to many of us.
Mathematicians and scientists usually make a distinction between studying mathematics or science, and studying the history of those subjects. Can philosophers do the same?
