1. A Prefatory Note, by Z In “On University Philosophy,” Schopenhauer writes: [T]he look back at all the goings-on at universities since Kant’s departure, have more and more hardened my view that of there is there is to be philosophy at all, i.e., if the human intellect is to be allowed to turn its highest … [continue reading]
Lee C. McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. Chronicle of Higher Education, 2011 In March administrators at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas announced that, because of budget cuts, the entire department of philosophy … [continue reading]
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]
New York Times 11 January 2016 Robert Frodeman and Adam Briggle teach in the department of philosophy and religion and the University of North Texas. They are co-authors of the forthcoming “Socrates Tenured: The Institutions of 21st-Century Philosophy.” The history of Western philosophy can be presented in a number of ways. It can be told … [continue reading]
1. The Essay, by Boethius. I’ve been reading Russell here and there recently, mostly late stuff from 1942-67, with an eye to studying his metaphilosophy. There’s at least one common metaphilosophical thread with “The value of philosophy” from 1912, one thing I’ve noticed in the tone and substance of Russell’s criticism of philosophy I’d group … [continue reading]
APP Editors’ Note: PoS is a philosopher of science and an associate professor in a non-US subsidiary of a top-ranked US philosophy department. PoS: Your website is down, I guess professionalism is good for something after all… Z: Re website functionality: Sorry! It seems to be working fine now. Re professionalism: You might find this … [continue reading]
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]
The truly apocalyptic view of the world is that things do not repeat themselves. It isn‘t absurd, e.g., to believe that the age of science and technology is the beginning of the end for humanity; the idea of great progress is a delusion, along with the idea that the truth will ultimately be known; that … [continue reading]
APP Editors’ note: G is a full-time adjunct lecturer in philosophy at a public university somewhere in North America. G: Here are some some biased and unreflective comments about APP because, as you know, most of us just don’t have much time. 1. The pages don’t load properly – long wait and had to reload … [continue reading]
I. THE ESSAY. 1. It’s entirely clear that higher education is in crisis, in at least five basic ways: (i) it’s deeply “commodified” by global corporate capitalism in the age of political neoliberalism, and in thrall to a false ideal of Enlightenment Lite, as described in this APP essay— From Enlightenment Lite to Nihilism: How … [continue reading]