Sam Harris’s Talk in Berkeley Last Night

It seems to me that every time I come across real philosophers they have an
extremely pompous view of non-academic, amateur, or overly modern or
political thinkers.

In short, they relate everything to the greats: Kant, Plato, Aristotle,
Hume, etc., and they seem to dismiss modern thought that’s more practical if
it doesn’t seem sufficiently reverent of these works in every breath.

I see two possible reasons for this bothering me:

1. I’m simply uneducated and unsophisticated when it comes to understanding
   how brilliant these thinkers really were. Their arguments really are
   timeless and should really be brought up in every single conversation
   about a related topic–even in 2012. In short, I need to study the greats
   more so I can be more like these pompous types who look down on my
   current view.

2. Many of philosophers get off on not being practical and not speaking
   directly about things, and they bristle at any notion of us having
   improved upon, or evolved beyond, the great thinkers they have elevated
   to the point of fetish. They are ultimately less useful as thinkers,
   although they are masterful at performing elaborate dances that appear
   to be thinking of the highest sort–much like Demonstration Kung Fu vs.
   Brazilian Jujitsu.

First off, I’m not beyond admitting if I’m simply ignorant on this, and that
the solution is for me to elevate my knowledge so that I too can become a
philosophy snob. I’m cool with that. I’m there already in many other areas.

But I want to be right more than I want to look like I am. So if these guys
are simply hand-waving in a very impressive way by constantly
hero-worshipping the original works as a means of disparaging modern
thinkers with more substance, then I’m going to call that what it is.

As with most things the answer is likely some combination of the extremes. I
should definitely study the greats more. I should learn their arguments
thoroughly, so I too can recognize when something is “Kantian”. No doubt
there.

That being said, I have a strong suspicion that even as I advance my
knowledge in these areas I will continue to detect from these types an
elitist hand-waving that produces more heat than light. A group of people
who dislike direct, open dialog on a topic because it’s so efficient, and
because it fails to pay homage to their heroes in elaborate statements that
seem to beg for applause.

I would genuinely like to hear from any properly trained
philosophers–especially those who are more practically minded as well and
can see both worlds and comment on each. What do you predict the outcome of
my exploration will be? Will I realize that philosopher elitists actually do
have the right approach, or will I ultimately conclude that the modern
thinkers are standing on the shoulders of the greats and are actually
producing the more powerful and useful arguments?