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Judgemental Philosophys
I have read a handful of philosophers and I notice a common trend. Basically most philosophys seem to be built on the premise that older generations of humans are consciencously ignorant and inferior to later generations.
While I understand that evolution tends to produce a more complex society, I do not agree that any generation believes themselves to be stupid like many historians and philosophers suggest. I feel all generations and societies do the best they can with the tools and knowledge they have available.
Another thing I do not like is philosophers making sweeping generalizations about an entire civilization based on the progress of one social class. In other words, they often say silly things like , Greeks are smart, barbarians are dumb. While this may be true for certain groups in these societies, it certainly can not be valid across the entire civilization.
Depends on what is meant by the simplistic "dumb" (or even "smart"). By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the Huns, the Goths, and the Vandals were to some extent attempting to despoil the civilized world of it's riches. Now the Goths and the Vandals, while loathing the lack of freedom inherent in a civilization, nonetheless greatly appreciated the boon of arts and agriculture. For the Huns...less so.
With the Huns, their nomadic life never encountered the need for anything such as a historian or the poet. Romans in these occupations soon found themselves reduced to menial labors once the Huns had captured them. Neither had the Huns much use for arts or even of architecture.
In this sense, the barbarians were to differing degrees "dumb" concerning the usefulness of law, agriculture, or learning to enhance life's pleasures or to blunt life's pain. On the flip side, those same comforts made the Romans insensibly "dumb" to the possibility that civilized life would be taken away by those who did not value it.
It's worse than you make it out. All philosophers hold that everyone that doesn't agree with them are ignorant and inferior, whether from earlier generations, the current generation, or future generations.
In that respect, they are very much like movie critics.
If we (the human race, not just philosophers) did not make sweeping generalizations about 'stuff' (all/any stuff) we would still be living in caves
Your life (non of our lives) are long enough to accommodate every possible variable - hence we 'must' generalize in order to communicate/progress at all