Prologue

We inhabit an era in which all has changed completely from what it was three centuries ago.

Except philosophy.

Scientifically-oriented people rely on two sets of old thinkers. Ancient Greeks who were basically an ignorant prejudiced elite, none of whom could have passed third grade. And those prolific Enlightenment dilettantes who might have been able to do so with a little summer schooling.

Anti-science people, in opposition, point out that everyone was always just like us.  They seek wisdom from the remnants of tribal superstition or solitary religious vision.  Usually, the stranger and more illogical, the better.

Neither of these approaches are relevant when both the quantity and quality of human knowledge has changed multi-exponentially.  We may be happy and sad just like our ancestors, but we also control and understand why we control a great deal of our physical environment.  

Unfortunately, it has turned out that the increased specialization necessary for a person to thrive in current culture creates geniuses in one field who are morons in another.

Philosophy, when considered at all, retreats to tired simplistic tales of shadows in a cave, or the matrix, or libertarianism, or life with a purpose.  Neighbors shout slogans because we are too worn down to think with complexity.

Yet we do live just like everyone always has. Philosophy should be brought up to date.

From a true modern perspective the whole edifice of current philosophic thought should be bulldozed into the ocean and the site cleared for something new.