(APP, 2013-2024)
In his essay, “Against and Beyond Professional Academic Philosophy: A Synopsis,” Robert Hanna raises the question: what are the material conditions for the real-world implementation of what he calls “life-shaping philosophy”? Then he argues that three material conditions need to be jointly satisfied in order to implement life-shaping philosophy in the real world: first, there must be a worldwide loosely-structured network of philosophy research groups, each one composed of a small number (say, at most 10-12) like-minded people who are all committed to the pursuit and practice of philosophy as a full-time, lifetime calling, and who freely and regularly associate with one another in order to forward this purpose; second, there must also be a large-scale, universally freely accessible, online platform that operates essentially beyond the control of the professional academy and its associated academic presses or other mainstream publishing venues, for sharing their research group’s individual and collaborative work, and for online discussion with other philosophers or philosophically-minded people, especially those who belong to other philosophy research groups; and third, and above all, there must be a reliable, sustainable, sufficient, and above all no-strings-attached, source of income in order (i) to pay for the group’s website(s), for their electronic and hard-copy publishing capability, for holding at least one in-person meeting per year for the entire group, and for their real-world philosophical collective activism, (ii) to pay for “premium” features of using the large-scale, universally freely accessible online platform, and above all (iii) to provide an income adequate for all the purposes of ordinary living, for all full-time research-group members.
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