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]
Category: Essays
Production for Use. Professional Philosophy as a Highly Efficient System for Treating People Merely as Means
1.One doesn’t have to be a Kantian to realize that, other things being equal, treating people (oneself or others) merely as means, that is, treating people merely as instruments to the achievement of some other end that is beyond the best interests or dignity of those people themselves, is a morally bad thing. Of course … [continue reading]
sickness-unto-death@uni.edu.
1. By personal problems, I mean large or small individual or first-person difficulties, that need to be dealt with, and can be controlled to some extent by that first-person. 2. But an existential problem, as I will understand it, is a personal problem that is so profound and severe that it seriously raises the question … [continue reading]
Philosophical Rigor as Rigor Mortis, Or, How to Write a Publishable Paper Without Even Having to Think.
My anarcho-philosophical attention was recently drawn to this very interesting blog post, by Marcus Arvan, “Has Contemporary Philosophy Over-Fetishized Rigor?” By “rigor” Arvan means, and I also mean, analytical clarity, consistency, a preparedness to give reasons for one’s claims, attention to validity in arguments, and a preparedness to defend one’s claims and arguments against actual … [continue reading]
Real Philosophy from the Outside. A Conversation between M, Boethius, L-E, and Z. (APP’s Readers Talk Back! 3)
APP Editors’ note: M is a recent PhD in philosophy, and also the holder of an advanced degree in law, who is currently teaching in a non-TT position at a public university somewhere in Europe; Boethius is a tenured associate professor of philosophy at a public university somewhere in North America; & L_E is a … [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]