“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot.” –Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch, 51. 1. Recently I read Samuel Wheeler’s very cool and insightful essay, “Specialization and the Future of Analytic Philosophy,” on the malign impact and implications of endemic, forced specialization, both early- and hyper-, in contemporary professional … [continue reading]
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Advice from MIT on Preparing a Philosophy Writing Sample.
APP Editors’ note: This memo was shared by one of our readers, who teaches in a top-ranked philosophy department somewhere in North America. See also Philosophical Rigor as Rigor Mortis, Or, How to Write a Publishable Paper Without Even Having to Think. The most important thing is to label your theses. Even if your views … [continue reading]
On Having the Name ‘Z’.
1. Recently, in reply to what I thought was a very friendly, polite, and even slightly amusing e-mail letter telling him about APP, a well-known Analytic philosopher of science–whose name I won’t name–sent me this fairly nasty little note: “Dear X,Y and Z, I tend to prefer opinions, good, bad, inane as they may be, … [continue reading]
From Enlightenment Lite to Nihilism: How Professional Philosophy Has Totally Let Everyone Down about the Real Purpose of an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Education.
Recently, someone sent me a copy of this extremely recent interesting Harper’s article by William Deresiewicz, “The Neoliberal Arts: How College Sold its Soul to the Market.” It’s a scathing critique of contemporary undergraduate liberal arts education, very nicely timed to appear with the beginning of the 2015-2016 academic year. I don’t know WD’s previous … [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]
The Pseudo-Family from Hell: Against Philosophy Departments & For Philosophy Research Groups.
Every happy philosophy department is the same, but each unhappy philosophy department is fucked up in its own special, weird way. Of course, I’m profanely spinning on the justly famous first line of Tolstoy’s titanically brilliant Anna Karenina. Tolstoy knew all about fucked-up families. But philosophers are, by nature, special, weird people; and professional academic … [continue reading]
Learning to Love Your Captors, Or, How to Publish, then Perish before Leaving Grad School. An Edgy Essay by X1.
I would venture to guess that the vast majority of us took an interest in philosophy not as a way to have better access to a job, but as a way of life. I would also venture to guess that the vast majority of those who began philosophy in this way have now abandoned philosophy … [continue reading]
Which Brand Do You Identify With? Brand Loyalty as Discrimination in Professional Philosophy.
Are you Analytic-coke, or Continental-pepsi? Are you Femininist-Tareyton, or non-Feminist-Tareyton? Would you rather fight than switch? Now remove ‘coke’, ‘pepsi’, and ‘Tareyton’ from those all-too-familiar professional-philosophy labels. Do you now see how essentially stupid, rationally unjustified, or even immoral it is for you to identify yourself with one brand of professional philosophy than another? Or … [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]
Philosophy Leiterized: How We Reduce Vermeers to Cow Plops, and How A Measure Colonizes Our Behavior. (Re-edited March 2018)
APP EDITORS’ NOTE: THE 2017-2018 PHILOSOPHY GOURMET REPORT RANKINGS ARE HERE. No, I’m NOT going to attack Brian Leiter— That’s been done many times before. What I’m interested in are these two paragraphs from Leiter’s Wikipedia article: Philosophical Gourmet Report In 1989, while he was a graduate student, Leiter made a list of what he … [continue reading]