Anthony Gottlieb in More Intelligent Life:
There was once a website on which academic philosophers listed the curious things that strangers had said to them upon learning that they were in the presence of a philosopher. The following conversation allegedly took place on an aeroplane:
“May I ask you a question?”“Yes.”“It’s a philosophical question. Is that ok?”“Sure.”“There’s a boy I fancy. Should I text him or e-mail him?”In a similar vein, also from the skies:“What do you do?”“I’m a philosopher.”“What are some of your sayings, then?”This exchange makes professional philosophers titter, because their daily work is far removed from the production of sage utterances. But the request for “sayings” was not an unreasonable one. The great philosophers of old are remembered largely by their posthumous contributions to dictionaries of quotations. How is an ordinary person to know what today’s professional philosophers think?One answer – a novel one, it seems – comes from a new survey of philosophers’ views. A preliminary analysis of the results has been published in an electronic journal, PhilPapers. Unfortunately, however, the survey was written for philosophy nerds. So here is a translation for airline passengers.
More here. [Thanks to Stefany Anne Golberg.]