What is Philosophy and Where Should It Happen?

Worth considering: Philosopher Scott Soames argues that [1] philosophy’s recent history has been much more impressive than its critics would have you believe, and [2] philosophy is best done in a university setting, rather than in the public square.

Soames is generally irenic (so long as the grumbling parties are fairly connected to the Anglo-analytic methods he favors). He does not take too seriously the fad of logical positivism in the 20th century, and he does not limit legitimate philosophical interest to any one are of exploration (e.g., he does not dismiss moral philosophy as a going concern). On the contrary, he argues that real advances have been made across the board, and that this is mainly thanks to philosophy’s having been disciplined by the modern research academy. This is no argument, however, for philosophy’s being arcane or divorced from concerns of non-professional philosophers. There is much to consider in this essay.

The impetus for this piece was another that appeared in the NYT “The Stone” philosophy column by Bob Frodeman and Adam Briggle, which argued that philosophy lost its way when it morphed into just another academic discipline (one with science-envy). I confess, I’ve seen it in much the same way as Frodeman and Briggle, and having just re-read their piece I generally still do.

It makes me wonder: Is there just *one* thing that philosophy is? Or  is term “philosophy” like term “religion” — a blanket term that (legitimately?) covers widely divergent practices? Is the philosophy for the public square (or philosophy-as-a-way-of-life) “the same thing” as the philosophy done in academic settings and disciplinary practices? If not, is there at least a possibility for a mutually enriching intersection or overlap? Philosophers themselves have been notoriously argumentative about what counts as philosophy at all (for instance, the Derrida affair). Often they divide up their “orthodox” and their “heterodox” and their outright “heathen dogs.” Maybe that’s just part of the game.

But I know I do more than one thing as a philosopher…or maybe I am more than one thing as a philosopher. What and how I teach (and to what end) is not the same (exactly) as what I do when I write a journal article or a book review on a technical issue in, say, ontology. And I don’t think, as a philosopher (not as a philosopher professor), that I am ever “off the clock.” Perhaps I am large and contain multitudes. But why not be large and why not try to contain multitudes? Frodeman/Briggle and Soames. Why not?

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A Tenured Professor On Why Hiring Adjuncts Is Wrong

Well, I know what she’s trying to say…but my cat needs food! Can we continue to do the wrong thing until we figure out how we’ll do the right thing (which we should do, of course)?

A Tenured Professor On Why Hiring Adjuncts Is Wrong.

Prof, no one is reading you – Opinion More Opinion Stories ST Editorial – The Straits Times

Prof, no one is reading you – Opinion More Opinion Stories ST Editorial – The Straits Times.

And you probably didn’t read this either.

Adjunct pay: A quarter of part-time college faculty receive public assistance.

Consider: Adjunct pay: A quarter of part-time college faculty receive public assistance..

 

Teach or Perish – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

We live by the unspoken creed that teaching is, well, not really what one is supposed to be doing. Conversely, doing a lot of teaching is construed as a sign that one is not doing well. This perverse reasoning leads scholars to conjure up all manner of strategies geared to evading the lectern and maximizing undisturbed research time. In their ingenuity and inventiveness, these tactics have the quality of grift. 

Teach or Perish – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Why Academics Stink at Writing

Here’s Steven Pinker’s assessment and advice.  But should we take advice about good writing from an essay that begins with the most trite clichés?

Together with wearing earth tones, driving Priuses, and having a foreign policy, the most conspicuous trait of the American professoriate may be the prose style called academese.

Teddy West, my writing prof from college, would not approve!

Why You Should (Probably) Not Be A Professor | Talking Philosophy

Yeah, you’re right. Fuck it: Why You Should (Probably) Not Be A Professor | Talking Philosophy.

(Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be a philosopher, though….)

Scientists sneak Bob Dylan lyrics into articles as part of long-running bet | Music | The Guardian

Group of Swedish academics – authors of papers such as Nitric Oxide and Inflammation: The Answer is Blowing in the Wind – reveal 17-year bet: whoever has written most articles including Dylan quotes before going into retirement wins a lunch at a local restaurant

via Scientists sneak Bob Dylan lyrics into articles as part of long-running bet | Music | The Guardian.

Professors on food stamps: The shocking true story of academia in 2014 – Salon.com

Our students didn’t know that professors with PhDs aren’t even earning as much as an entry-level fast food worker.

via Professors on food stamps: The shocking true story of academia in 2014 – Salon.com.

Why Academics’ Writing Stinks – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Enough already. Our indifference to how we share the fruits of our intellectual labors is a betrayal of our calling to enhance the spread of knowledge. In writing badly, we are wasting each other’s time, sowing confusion and error, and turning our profession into a laughingstock.

via Why Academics’ Writing Stinks – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education.