Review of Elijah Milgram: The Great Endarkenment – Philosophy for an Age of Hyperspecialization

Abstract

If you take a look at the latest developments in pop-culture, works that may be labeled as gritty or dystopian are much sought-after. To some extent, Elijah Milgram’s new book may be seen as philosophy’s latest contribution to that trend. However this characterization falls short on capturing many of the qualities of this highly-inspiring book. Before trying to summarize its outline, let me start with some general remarks: aside from an introductory chapter, the book contains eleven chapters, many of whom are based on papers that have been published in professional journals or edited volumes in the recent years. While books in academic philosophy are typically constrained to a narrow set of topics, Milgram has put in a rather ambitious effort, as the individual chapters of the book contribute to the whole range of philosophical sub-disciplines, in addition to considerations about meta-philosophy and the sociology of philosophy. The book has clearly been written with a professional readership in mind, even though it is not aimed at specialists in a certain subfield. Experts in each area will find the ideas presented in the individual chapters thought-provoking, but e.g. a philosopher trained in applied ethics will have no difficulties in grasping the value of the ideas presented in the chapters on metaphysics or agency. In contrast to what one might assume so far, Milgram doesn’t try to develop a comprehensive philosophical system. Instead, the individual chapters may be seen as explorations into different areas of philosophy, which are guided by a set of arguments that Milgram established in his earlier work on practical induction. Before attempting to reconstruct Milgram’s arguments, let’s take a look first at the concept of what he calls »the great endarkenment«. In a nutshell, the great endarkenment describes how a culture of hyperspecialization leads the way to a new age of superstition. Let me illustrate this audacious claim with the following example: historically, philosophers used to work on a broad spectrum of topics and thus, it was not uncommon for an individual philosopher to be well versed in e.g. ethics, metaphysics, epistemology and the current developments in the sciences. In the current climate however, Ethic Theory Moral Prac (2016) 19:1047–1048 DOI 10.1007/s10677-015-9679-0