In the Theses on Feuerbach, Marx wrote that “philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point is to change it.” Now I completely agree with Marx that an essential aim of real philosophy is to change the world, not merely interpret it. But I also sharply disagree, in that I think that … [continue reading]
What Is the Real Point of Graduate Programs in Philosophy?
I. THE ESSAY 1. Until recently, I was a tenured full professor of philosophy at a public university somewhere in North America, and as I say in my APP site-blurb, nevertheless I still managed to escape with my life. It’s therefore somewhat ironic that my former department hasn’t yet purged me from their e-mail lists, … [continue reading]
Women Philosophers Can Be Just as Fucked Up as Men Philosophers
An APP-sympathizer attended a philosophy conference in the South recently, and was equally amazed and dismayed by the public performance of a well-known woman philosopher, who…. Well, I’ll let my APP-sympathizer friend tell it in her own words, minimally edited for anonymity’s sake: “Speaking of ‘professional philosophy’, the conference I attended in WWW a couple … [continue reading]
“Fear, What’s Fashionable, and Fear”: An Untenured Woman Philosopher’s Thoughts on the State of Contemporary Professional Philosophy
Author’s Note: Roughly 18 months ago, I was at a philosophy conference and had several long conversations with a super-smart and super-nice 20-something woman philosopher who’s an untenured assistant professor at a private university somewhere in North America. Let’s call her “W.” Over the course of three days, W and I talked about all sorts … [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.
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]
The Schizophrenia of Authentic Philosophy, Part 1
There are authentic and inauthentic philosophers in the professional philosophical world. An authentic philosopher is one who, at the very least, does philosophy without regard for what the profession as a whole decides is right or correct simply by fiat. In other words, an authentic philosopher is one who does not let the prevailing biases … [continue reading]
“Under Submission”: 4 Radical Fixes for the Philosophy Publication Racket
I once had a colleague, now quite a well-respected person in his sub-field, and the holder of a prestigious professorship at one of The Fortune 500 Philosophy Club universities, of whom it was said that he loved refereeing because that way he could keep his enemies out of print. Indeed, after a few drinks, he … [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 We’re So Smart, Then Why Are We Such Assholes?
This is a true story about my life, followed by a short argument. Last Saturday, Y sent to the APP circle the following bit of text, which in turn was excerpted from this article, which by now everyone in professional philosophy has either read or heard about: Scholars in all disciplines have disagreements. But philosophy … [continue reading]