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About Ishmael

Ishmael is a tenured associate professor of philosophy at a small private university somewhere in North America.

Self-Reflections in a Shallow Pond: Jason Stanley’s “The Crisis of Philosophy” Revisited.

In 2010, Jason Stanley published an article in Inside Higher Ed called “The Crisis of Philosophy.” Stanley was later interviewed in 2012 on 3AM, to much the same effect. From the contemporary vantage point of APP, imagine our interest! Six years down the road, however, on a close reading of “The Crisis of Philosophy,” the … [continue reading]

Plato and Professional Philosophy. Studies in Critical Metaphilosophy & Critical History of Philosophy 1.

1. A Prefatory Note, by Z. My first passionate loves in philosophy were Plato, life-changing metaphysics, early Wittgenstein, life-changing metaphysics, Whitehead, life-changing metaphysics, Kant, and life-changing metaphysics. In the late 70s, in my Plato phase, working ecstatically on my senior thesis on Plato, Kant, and the life-changing metaphysics of value (yes, 70s naif that I … [continue reading]

In Praise of Semi-Professional Philosophy.

I have written in reply to a previous Edgy Essay about the benefits of membership in the Semi-Professional Academic State, which is to say the benefits of teaching at a small undergraduate university. Since such universities generally care less about one’s Reputation in the Philosophy Profession, one is more or less at liberty to think, … [continue reading]

Let’s Crash Out! Real Philosophy, Anti-Professional Style, and the Right Genre and Medium for the Message. (APP’s Readers Talk Back! 2)

APP Editors’ Note: JV is a graduate student in philosophy at a public university somewhere in North America; Ishmael is a tenured associate professor of philosophy at a small private university somewhere in North America; and L_E is a PhD student in philosophy at a public university somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. This conversation refers … [continue reading]