Through decades of promulgating such doctrines as Pragmatism, Logical
Positivism, Linguistic Analysis, [philosophers] refused to consider the fact
that these doctrines would disarm and paralyze the best among men, those who
take philosophy seriously, and that they would unleash the worst, those who,
scorning philosophy, reason, justice, morality, would have no trouble brushing
the disarmed out of the way. . . . To what sort of problems had [today’s
philosophers] been giving priority over the problems of politics? Among the
papers to be read at that [1969 American Philosophical Association (Eastern
Division)] convention were: “Pronouns and Proper Names”—“Can Grammar Be
Thought?”—“Propositions as the Only Realities.”