Bad Philosophy

“The answer to the question … cannot lie in any proposition that is blind and isolated. The answer is not properly conceived if what it asserts propositionally is just passed along, especially if it gets circulated as a free-floating result, so that we merely get informed about a ‘standpoint’ which may perhaps differ from the way this has hitherto been treated. Whether the answer is a ‘new’ one remains quite superficial and is of no importance” (Being and Time). l

“But for those who do not trouble to grasp the chain and connection of my arguments, and who busy themselves in quibbling over isolated propositions (and there are many people whose habit this is), they will derive very little benefit from reading this work; and although perhaps they will find frequent opportunities to carp, it is unlikely that they will be able to put forward any objection that causes real difficulty or deserves a reply” (Meditations, Preface). l

Educated guess #1: Bad philosophers have always existed

Educated guess #2: Descartes and Heidegger both had time-travelling machines and had read Putnam's papers