In philosophy, the social sciences (by an individual), the humanities?
Anything paradigm shifting, a mark of genius, a clear deviation from what has been said before? It can draw on existing research, much like Locke drew selectively from the Bible, but it has to have a completely new insight that no one else ever really considered, which now everyone must cite and pay homage to.
What book or article meets this standard, post-2000?
I don't think so.
The Humanities and Philosophy have fallen hard after the 1980's. Even Classics Departments nowadays are hiring people who dislike the Classics, think they are above learning from "old white males" and have as their purpose proving that the Classics were not exceptional.
Newton hypotheses vs Oretga hypothesis
All the low-hanging fruit have been picked in these disciplines, so now all that is left is for researchers to make tiny incremental advancements. The age of grand geniuses coming up with novel all-encompassing theories is over
I don't think so.
The Humanities and Philosophy have fallen hard after the 1980's. Even Classics Departments nowadays are hiring people who dislike the Classics, think they are above learning from "old white males" and have as their purpose proving that the Classics were not exceptional.
Color me skeptical. Between 1100 and 1350, it seemed to Latin Europe that there were no more major advancements to make in science, but that was only because we lacked the stimuli of, inter alia, Aristole's Greek commentators and the new field of philology. It's possible we are just wanting a new stimulus by which to make big new inquiries.
I don't think so.
The Humanities and Philosophy have fallen hard after the 1980's. Even Classics Departments nowadays are hiring people who dislike the Classics, think they are above learning from "old white males" and have as their purpose proving that the Classics were not exceptional.Color me skeptical. Between 1100 and 1350, it seemed to Latin Europe that there were no more major advancements to make in science, but that was only because we lacked the stimuli of, inter alia, Aristole's Greek commentators and the new field of philology. It's possible we are just wanting a new stimulus by which to make big new inquiries.
I mean to reply to the post about the Ortega hypothesis.
Nick Bostrom's simulation theory, econ papers discussing its effects. Actualization. AGI literature. Neural network applications to say strategic games (including those with limited information, such as poker. While it's a meme, lesswrong/agi (and less closely tied effective altruism) actually has some gems despite the organizations being captured by ultra conformist center left yuppy strivers living on daddies money. Some high iq societies also have some good gems. Think lots of the value is curation of ideas now as well, phrasing it in a way that multiple streams of thought come together in a more tangible fashion.
It is not possible for books to be groundbreaking, because people don't read anymore and no one has an attention span of more than 3 months, unless the topic is picked up by the media and people start yelling at each other about it. That's why that dumb white privilege book is still remembered to this day. Same for all these anti-woke stuff.
It is not possible for books to be groundbreaking, because people don't read anymore and no one has an attention span of more than 3 months, unless the topic is picked up by the media and people start yelling at each other about it. That's why that dumb white privilege book is still remembered to this day. Same for all these anti-woke stuff.
This is non-unique. Literacy is actually unprecedentedly high today compared to the ages when groundbreaking books were allegedly written.
In the past, individual writers or small groups of writers would create "ground-breaking" new ideas, theories, intellectual movements, because ideas were shared among the elite in the form of books and articles. In the age of the internet, new intellectual movements are created by the crowd, and slogans and memes become the primary expression. It all comes down to the dominant mass communication technology of the time.