Louisville Process Theology Network

One Iota

“Philosophy is, except for some modernizing, exactly the same
as is have ever been. It has not progress one iota,” writes Eric Dietrich in his
“Essays in Philosophy.”

Other modern philosophers agree. It’s said that Aristotle
would be comfortable with most college philosophy classes today. Some of the
scientific concepts we study today would be confusing to him, no doubt. The rest
would be very familiar.

Many of the essential questions of Philosophy are still open
to discussion a couple millennia later. There is still no widespread agreement
of the nature of free will, for example.

Some modern philosophers believe this problem is caused by
the contradiction between objective and subjective interpretations. Many of us
believe in free will based on our practical experiences. The echoing patterns we
see in the history of human events might suggest otherwise, however.

Some say that philosophical problems are solvable in
principle – just not by us. Like the animals around us, we understand much of
what is going on in the world but the “real language” of nature is beyond us.

On the other hand, Dietrich writes that the existence of
“ineluctable clashes” in philosophy is only truth.