If I were to ask my colleagues what they think about neoliberalism and its impact on today’s colleges and universities, many of them would report that they’ve either never come across the term “neoliberalism” or that they are unsure what it means. This is interesting in and of itself. But if I ask, “have you … [continue reading]
Author Archives: Y
Passionless Professionalism in Academic Philosophy.
In his introduction to The Passions, Robert Solomon quite rightly insists that philosophy really matters. The field is not (or should not be) “a self-generating profession of conjectures and refutations” that concern “a self-contained system of problems and puzzles” (p. 1). Instead, we should keep in mind that because we are all philosophers, thinking about … [continue reading]
The Strange Case of Don-the-Monster, Or, Coercive Moralism in Professional Philosophy
Part 1. Y’s Take on The Strange Case of Don-the-Monster. One of my colleagues (let’s call him Don) considers himself a religious man and has a strong background in ethics. He specializes in health care ethics, and also plays an integral role in emphasizing the importance of “teaching values across the curriculum” at our institution. … [continue reading]
How the Journals are Making Me Lose the Philosophical Will-to-Live.
This essay describes my own personal take on certain aspects of what Z has called the Publication Racket. When philosophy journals contact me to request that I referee an article, they typically request that I submit my review within two months. Some journals request that I submit my review in as little as six weeks, … [continue reading]
Death by Assessment?
An emerging trend over the last five years ago has been higher education’s increased emphasis on “assessment.” What I have in mind is not the assessment of students and the assignment of grades, but instead the evaluation of courses, departments, academic programs, and institutions. The general strategy is to develop “best practices” and “learning outcomes” … [continue reading]
“Mind the Gap”: How to Close Professional Philosophy’s Gender-Gap and Minority-Gap. With a Critical Postscript by X and Y.
I think it’s obvious that contemporary professional philosophy has a gender-gap and a minority-gap, no matter how one calculates the percentages of women or members of minority groups (ethnic and racial, economic class, sexual-orientation, disability, etc.) in the field: that is, whether it’s in relation to all current tenure-track faculty of any age-cohort (including emeritus/a … [continue reading]
FOOC the MOOCs.
The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that corporations are people, so I guess it’s not surprising that universities are corporations…. and College and University Presidents are much like CEOs. The main goal of higher education, then, must be to make a profit. At my home institution, online courses were developed as a means to boost summer … [continue reading]
“If you don’t have anything nice to say…”
When I was a kid, my parents used to tell me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all. I do see some merit in that recommendation. For example, I think it probably would have been better for me and my siblings to stay quiet during dinner rather … [continue reading]