I want to survive for many reasons: to experience friendship, love, and connectedness, to be with family, care for them, be in their company, to mentor students, to play and enjoy music, to delight in art and in natural beauty.
See also: "Prophetic Imagination,"* by Walter Brueggemann, a kindred spirit. You are in solidarity with a renowned biblical exegete in an adjacent discipline.
I hope this becomes the reality for philosophy, and I hope (as I suppose almost every grad student does) to be able to contribute to that kind of philosophical project. Years ago, when I was the director of admissions at a tiny, struggling Christian college, it became clear to me that our strength as an institution was that the employees and decision-makers collectively cared more about the mission of the institution than we did about perpetuating its existence. That's not to say we wouldn't have mourned the loss of the college if it had been forced to shut down, but we weren't prepared to undermine our purpose to stay open. If our work had become financially unsustainable because another, definitively better option had come along for our constituents, we would've shed a few tears for our beloved community, shrugged, and gotten more remunerative jobs in industry. It also became clear that our mission had to permeate the work we did to promote ourselves: we had to care about young people enough to tell them so if we thought they might have better options elsewhere, and only bought giveaway items we thought were useful and high quality.
Caring more about our mission than our own success worked in that context; I'm not sure how to do it in philosophy. I want to; I plan to, but it makes me sad, because I get the impression that this time, it'll mean a host of desk rejects (I mean, I don't know that I'm good enough to avoid the host of rejections anyway) and a swift exit from academia having done no one much good except the undergrads I teach.
Play might not simply be a biological need; it might also be a basis of culture. For an argument along these lines, see Johann Huizinga's book, Homo Ludens.
I've noticed a lot of the best philosophy I find comes from masters of various disciplines, rather than folks who are primarily philosophers. Scientists and practioners of various kinds look to their most experienced among them for wisdom, for good reason.
In the public more generally, I suspect the decline of religion has something to do with it. Outside of academia, religious discussion circles seem to be the primary venue for talking about matters of ultimate importance. So the generations growing up without it have to look elsewhere. Psychotherapy has picked up some of the work. Political groups as well as businesses seeking profit are happy to promise a suitable source of value, but neither is spiritually fulfilling.
I suspect something about for-pay (professional) philosophy falls victim to the problems of consumer products.
Yes, absolutely, to all of that. This resonates so much with all that I’ve been thinking about lately… especially I love that as a philosopher you don’t shy away from bringing in spirituality or religion—as these are also philosophical ideas. (As a scholar of religion, I’ve always argued much the same but from the other side :))
I do think that, perhaps ironically, we’re at a rather unique moment when such conversations and ideas are becoming more and more frequent and fruitful—even if they might appear drowned out by all the other stuff… so that keeps me hopeful.
I’m looking forward to seeing how your project evolves!
See also: "Prophetic Imagination,"* by Walter Brueggemann, a kindred spirit. You are in solidarity with a renowned biblical exegete in an adjacent discipline.
* https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=walter+brueggemann+prophetic+imagination
I hope this becomes the reality for philosophy, and I hope (as I suppose almost every grad student does) to be able to contribute to that kind of philosophical project. Years ago, when I was the director of admissions at a tiny, struggling Christian college, it became clear to me that our strength as an institution was that the employees and decision-makers collectively cared more about the mission of the institution than we did about perpetuating its existence. That's not to say we wouldn't have mourned the loss of the college if it had been forced to shut down, but we weren't prepared to undermine our purpose to stay open. If our work had become financially unsustainable because another, definitively better option had come along for our constituents, we would've shed a few tears for our beloved community, shrugged, and gotten more remunerative jobs in industry. It also became clear that our mission had to permeate the work we did to promote ourselves: we had to care about young people enough to tell them so if we thought they might have better options elsewhere, and only bought giveaway items we thought were useful and high quality.
Caring more about our mission than our own success worked in that context; I'm not sure how to do it in philosophy. I want to; I plan to, but it makes me sad, because I get the impression that this time, it'll mean a host of desk rejects (I mean, I don't know that I'm good enough to avoid the host of rejections anyway) and a swift exit from academia having done no one much good except the undergrads I teach.
A very big project. Good luck!
I look forward to reading you!
Play might not simply be a biological need; it might also be a basis of culture. For an argument along these lines, see Johann Huizinga's book, Homo Ludens.
I've noticed a lot of the best philosophy I find comes from masters of various disciplines, rather than folks who are primarily philosophers. Scientists and practioners of various kinds look to their most experienced among them for wisdom, for good reason.
In the public more generally, I suspect the decline of religion has something to do with it. Outside of academia, religious discussion circles seem to be the primary venue for talking about matters of ultimate importance. So the generations growing up without it have to look elsewhere. Psychotherapy has picked up some of the work. Political groups as well as businesses seeking profit are happy to promise a suitable source of value, but neither is spiritually fulfilling.
I suspect something about for-pay (professional) philosophy falls victim to the problems of consumer products.
Yes, absolutely, to all of that. This resonates so much with all that I’ve been thinking about lately… especially I love that as a philosopher you don’t shy away from bringing in spirituality or religion—as these are also philosophical ideas. (As a scholar of religion, I’ve always argued much the same but from the other side :))
I do think that, perhaps ironically, we’re at a rather unique moment when such conversations and ideas are becoming more and more frequent and fruitful—even if they might appear drowned out by all the other stuff… so that keeps me hopeful.
I’m looking forward to seeing how your project evolves!
Nothing less will do. Forward Ho!!!