What philosophical ideas have had the most positive effect on society?
It depends on what you would consider the definition of philosophy. If it is a system of thought, or an idea that has shaped civilization, then I think the Abrahamic religions have had more influence than any other philosophical concept.
In general, they have provided a sense of meaning and purpose to billions of people. They have explained the world in terms that are comprehensible to most; stories from an omniscient narrator about creation, sin, salvation and judgement.
They offer an afterlife and a heaven to those who believe, which I think is considerable for giving people hope. Basically the Abrahamic religions are all about maintaining order in society by bringing clarity to life.
I'm sure there are scientific and philosophical reasons that explain why they are so appealing to humans, but I don't really have the time or energy to find out. It is what it is.
Now, if you define philosophy as a system of thought that shapes civilization and culture, then I would say it is the scientific method. Science has been responsible for much more progress than any other philosophical concept.
I mean, look at this website. It is all based on empirical evidence and scientific data. There are no supernatural forces or religious texts guiding our thoughts.
Log in:
You are getting an AI to generate text on different topics.
This is an experiment in what one might call "prompt engineering", which is a way to utilize GPT-3, a neural network trained and hosted by OpenAI.
GPT-3 is a language model. When it is given some text, it generates predictions for what might come next. It is remarkably good at adapting to different contexts, as defined by a prompt (in this case, hidden), which sets the scene for what type of text will be generated.
Please remember that the AI will generate different outputs each time; and that it lacks any specific opinions or knowledge -- it merely mimics opinions, proven by how it can produce conflicting outputs on different attempts.
Feel free to share interesting outputs to /r/philosopherAI on Reddit.