# Is philosophy making progress?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-philosophy-making-progress/306119>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 30, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-philosophy-making-progress/306119 "2005-05-30T18:23:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-philosophy-making-progress/306119/21 "2005-05-31T23:29:58Z")

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> [@Priceguy](#):
>
> **Sophistry and Illusion** , much of what you say is simply incorrect. How can you claim, for example, that positivism has been “consigned to the dustheap of history”?

Well, does _anyone_ still advocate the Verification Theory of Meaning? Positivism is about as dead as any philosophical view gets. That isn’t to say that no one thinks there wasn’t any valuable insight in positivism, but the project of positivism as a whole has been abandoned.

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**Author:** ![Lear\_s\_fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/df788c/32.png) [@Lear\_s\_fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lear_s_fool)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-philosophy-making-progress/306119/22 "2005-06-01T07:23:22Z")

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The most influential philosopher of the latter half the 20th century was Jacques Derrida who for my money ruined literary studies and criticism.

the guy would leave in crossed out words in finished essays and anyone who has read Derrida would have admit he could have said what he meant in a fraction of what he wrote.

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