Experimental Philosophy links to a very interesting paper from Trends in Cognitive Science. "Folk Concepts and Intuitions: From Philosophy to Cognitive Science" poses the idea that many concepts used in philosophy arise from our society. When the use of terms like knowledge, belief, wrong, and so forth are analyzed experimentally we find that they are not stable and vary between cultures. On the one hand that might not seem like a problem. But on the other a lot of philosophy is based upon an analysis of a concept. (This is, I think more true in analytic philosophy than say continental philosophy).
In a way, viewing philosophy as providing characterizations of folk concepts is not entirely revisionary. For it’s plausible that many traditional philosophical problems, like the mind/body problem and the problem of free will, are rooted in folk concepts and intuitions. Indeed, it is natural to regard much work in the history of philosophy as attempts to discern the character of folk concepts. When Socrates asks his fellow Athenians, “What is virtue?” or “What is knowledge?”, he is, in part, trying to draw out the character of the concepts they already have.
Before moving on, let me note that I don't agree with this interpretation of Socrates. I read Socrates as showing that ideas of virtue or knowledge are always in excess of our conception of them. i.e. moving towards a realism of universals that entails a kind of transcendentalism. But I confess this largely arises from my reading of Heidegger, Derrida, and others. I may post on that an other day as we've coincidentally been discussing that over at LDS-Phil the past day or so.
With respect to the above quote, let me suggest that a lot of philosophy does rest on our intuitions and concepts of various ideas. With respect to philosophy of mind the disconnect between folk views of the mind (folk psychology) and the views within both science and philosophy has been noted for some time. It seems quite reasonable to expect that "folk beliefs" regarding free will, the nature of time, and most else also ought be considered both social and open to revisionism.
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and Theology
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Blogged by Clark Goble