in a number of useful Internet discussions. For comments on the written version, thanks to Russell Blackford, Melissa

Is there progress in philosophy? I have two reactions to this question. First, the answer is obviously yes. Second, it is the wrong question. The right question is not “Is there progress? ” but “Why isn’t there more?”. We can distinguish three questions about philosophical progress. The Existence Question: is there progress in philosophy? The Comparison Question: is there as much progress in philosophy as in science? The Explanation Question (which tends to presuppose a negative answer to at least one of these two questions): why isn’t there more progress in philosophy? What we might call a glass-half-full view of philosophical progress is that there is some progress in philosophy. The glass-half-empty view is that there is not as much as we would like. In effect, the glass-half-full view consists in a positive answer to the Existence Question, while the glass-half-empty view (or at least one salient version of it) consists in a negative answer to the Comparison Question. These views fall between the extremes of a glass-empty view which answers no to the Existence Question, saying there is no progress in philosophy, and a glass-full thesis which answers yes to the Comparison Question, saying there is as much progress in philos-ophy as in science (or as much as we we would like). Of course the glass-half-full thesis and the glass-half-empty thesis are consistent with one another. I think for almost anyone deeply involved with the practice of philosophy, both theses will ring true. In discussions of progress in philosophy, my experience is that most people focus on the Existence Question: pessimists about philosophical progress (e.g. Dietrich 2011, Nielsen 1987; 0Forthcoming in Philosophy and in (J. Keller, ed) Being, Freedom, and Method: Themes from van Inwagen, Oxfor