Chronicle of Higher Education. December 11, 2011 We have devoted our lives to philosophy. We want the field to survive and, if possible, prosper. But it is increasingly doubtful that academic philosophy can thrive in an era of declining budgets, soaring debts, antipathy to tax increases, and new technologies such as distance education. Of course, … [continue reading]
The Pre-Structured Professional Philosopher: Vocabularies in Action.
At least since Bacon’s 1620 Novum Organum, the ideal of acquiring knowledge about the natural world as well as the world of human affairs has critically hinged on the ideal of a distanced, dispassionate observer who just documents the observations he makes. In philosophy and science, formal logic and clear, transparent methods have long been … [continue reading]
“I Sure Don’t Need to Read This”: One Way of Dismissing APP.
“I’m afraid I don’t like your manner,” he said, using the edge of his voice. “I’ve had complaints about it,” I said. “But nothing seems to do any good.” –Philip Marlowe* *In R. Chandler, Farewell My Lovely (New York: First Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1992), p. 51. APP Editors’ note: Y’All is a tenured full professor … [continue reading]
APP is Not Alone 4: “The Fragmentation of Philosophy, The Road to Reintegration” (AC.EDU Re-Post)
Münster Lecture, Universität Münster, November 2013. Forthcoming soon in E.M. Jung and J. Göhner (eds.), Susan Haack: Reintegrating Philosophy (Springer Verlag), and also posted on Academia.edu. … every fact leads to every other …. . Only men do not yet see how, always. And your business is to make plainer the way from some one … [continue reading]
“Failed Academics”: Schopenhauer, Peirce, and the (D)evolution of University Philosophy.
1. The relationship between philosophy and academia is tricky, and sometimes even tragic. For individuals living in the 21st century, the standard path towards a “quality” education is to enroll in universities. Those among us who are deeply interested in philosophy are naturally led to philosophy departments, and accordingly, we spend a great deal of … [continue reading]
APP is Not Alone 3: “The Ph.D. Octopus” (Harvard Monthly Re-Post)
Harvard Monthly, 1903 Some years ago we had at our Harvard Graduate School a very brilliant student of Philosophy, who, after leaving us and supporting himself by literary labor for three years, received an appointment to teach English Literature at a sister-institution of learning. The governors of this institution, however, had no sooner communicated the … [continue reading]
Philosoflicks 3: On the Metaphysics of Puppets.
WHAT IS A PHILOSOFLICK? In “Let’s Make More Movies,” the epistemological anarchist Paul Feyerabend wrote this: The separation of subjects that is such a pronounced characteristic of modern philosophy is … not altogether undesirable. It is a step on the way to a more satisfactory type of myth. What is needed to proceed further is … [continue reading]
Philosophy From the Outside: A Horse-Trainer’s Metaphysics.
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]
APP is Not Alone 2: “Making Philosophy Matter—Or Else” (CHE Re-Post)
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]
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]