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Let’s take a moment to remember why it’s wonderful to study and teach philosophy

Brian Leiter

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JULY 18 in view of all the positive feedback this thread has gotten; I hope some other readers will contribute.

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A student now thinking about PhD work writes:

A lot of undergrads and grad students read your blog everyday.  It's very insightful, but sometimes it can make the decision to be a philosopher sound rather awful.  I think it's very important that the profession talk about, for example, the issues of sexism that have lately been getting due and belated recognition.  But sometimes, and perhaps other blogs are more guilty of this than your own, I begin to lose sight of how wonderful philosophy is and get lost in an haze of inept administrators, sadistic philosophy smoker encounters, dead-end adjunct positions, and chauvinistic old boy clubs.  Perhaps, for the sake of those of us who are trying to keep up the enthusiasm to make it into grad school in the first place, you might find a time to request your readers mention things that they love about their job, or about pleasant colleagues and competent administrators?  My BA experience was one of unmitigated pleasure and happiness in a very functional and supportive department, and I can't imagine I'm the only one.  Blogs sometimes bring out complaints more readily than praise, and while I value realistic advice about my chosen field, it would be nice to have a balance. 

So readers:  let's hear the positives, we know there are many.

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28 responses to “Let’s take a moment to remember why it’s wonderful to study and teach philosophy”

  1. Roger

    I think pursuing philosophy can be an end in itself. Cliché as it may sound, the well-examined is a really incredible thing to pursue.

    Reply
  2. Jake Wright

    You are paid real money to think about questions that you consider important and interesting. Maybe not a lot of money, and maybe not forever; but the fact that I get to think about meaningful questions for pay, even for a day, never ceases to amaze me.

    Reply
  3. George Wrisley

    It can take a lifetime to figure out how best to live and what's most important. Philosophy can not only help you figure all of that out, but it might even allow you to get paid for your efforts. The thing I love about academic philosophy is that I get paid to do what I would want to be doing even if money weren't an issue, namely, reading, thinking, writing, and discussing philosophy.

    Reply
  4. Robert

    I think that ethics has made me a better person and that I do better things; I also think that philosophy has taught me to care less about material goods, and, in doing so, it has put me at peace with the livable but not lavish compensation I receive as a graduate student.

    I'm surrounded by people I intellectually respect, who, in turn, take me seriously, and we spend our time being pleasantly social and talking over deep and interesting issues. I largely make my own hours and am free to spend substantial time pursuing my own projects. It's easy for me to take off for a long weekend–or a summer–and spend time visiting friends and family around the country. Teaching can be frustrating, but is also greatly rewarding when one runs across a really enthusiastic and bright student. And I have the sense that what I'm doing is meaningful, and that in doing my work I am simultaneously developing my own abilities and gradually shaping what I hope to eventually be a lasting contribution to the field.

    It's not for everyone, but I'm actually very happy with my job and the life it currently affords me.

    Reply
  5. Tristan Haze

    From Chalmers' homepage (consc.net): '…one of the nice things about being a philosopher is that one is allowed to be interested in all sorts of things. (If you get interested in X, you just say "I'm working on the philosophy of X").'

    Reply
  6. Christina Dietz

    It's gonna take a little more than that email to crack open the secret joy in my philosophical heart and share it with the Leiter-world.

    No path is too daunting if the end is something you're deeply passionate about.

    Now, I'm not gonna lie, theres some truth to that email.. but if (by unfortunate chance) one is dissuaded by the potential perils of being a philosopher, all the better for the job market!

    ..kidding!

    …sort of…

    Reply
  7. V. Alan White

    Anon student:

    Thanks so much for your note to Brian, and for his posting it.

    I strongly identify with what you say. You're right to keep your feet squarely on the ground about things like the best grad school to attend (this blog will assist you there), the changing prospects for employment especially given the present anti-intellectual political environment, and the luck, good and bad, that can influence everything about a philosopher's (or anyone's) career.

    But you sound like me 35 years ago. (That hurt to say!) But I want to assure you that I feel as blessed as anyone could, being a non-religious sort. I've been primarily a teaching philosopher for over 30 years now including grad school, and thanks to lots of luck and a little skill, I've had an immensely rich and satisfying career (and hey, I still need 9 years to get to the raised full-retirement age!) If you have that spark that I think you have based on your email, then by all means pursue it–because I sense that you must anyway, irrespective of what appears on this thread. There is a lot of negativity on the phi-net, and the reasons for that are a complex mix of realism, disappointment, cynicism, bad luck, unrealistic expectations, self-deception, jealousy, and–well, you get the picture. The phi-blogs tend to attract the negative because its "fair and balanced" platform is as unintentionally skewed by human nature as Faux News (Brian's term) is intentionally. And philosophers as you know are all too human.

    Almost every day I think about how fortunate I am to be doing something that I love, and have some small knack for. Few people on the face of this god-forsaken ball of gravity-distributed elements (the at-once finery and fault of Aristotle, but then again I've always said that one main point of the liberal arts is to "get" better jokes) find themselves placed so as to make a small improvement in the intellectual lives of their fellows. I think you can on the ability side. With good luck on the opportunity side–which nearly all of us need–you will.

    Reply
  8. Andrew P. Shaw

    Can anyone point to a profession or discipline that does not suffer from inept administrators, sadistic encounters, dead-end positions, and chauvinistic old boy clubs?

    Reply
  9. Michael Della Rocca

    Many thanks to the student who invited observations about why philosophy is worth pursuing and to Brian for this opportunity.

    Lest what I’m about to say seem excessively rosy, let me say right away that I am well aware of the problems in the field that is philosophy: I know how unforgiving the job market can be, and no one knows better than I how selfishness, game-playing, narcissism, venality, and worse can mar our discipline. It’s all true, and we need to address ourselves to these problems.

    However, at the same time, I feel compelled and happy to say that it never ceases to amaze me how lucky and privileged I am to be in a community such as ours in which colleagues generally place their students’ interests first and foremost (as is appropriate), a community in which colleagues and students, for the most part, are engaged in an honest search for philosophical insight and are not seeking merely to “score points”. There are enough genuine philosophers and enough good people out there to help keep at bay those who seek to act badly in one way or another. And while there are sometimes short-sighted administrators who just don’t appreciate what philosophy is all about, more often than not, people in college- and university-administration (in my experience) are diligent, generous, and genuine people who just happen to be under a lot of pressure. And usually they do “get it” when it comes to philosophy or they can be helped to get it with the right kind of dialogue and ability to communicate. Most of all, what amazes me is that every day that I teach and write and discuss I have the chance to engage with others philosophically and by so doing to try to make a positive difference in their lives. It’s a rare opportunity, one well worth striving for, and if we are lucky enough to have that opportunity, we owe it to ourselves and to others to make the most of it.

    Reply
  10. Raj N. Patel

    “A man like me cannot live without a hobby-horse, a consuming passion — in Schiller’s words a tyrant. I have found my tyrant, and in his service I know no limits. My tyrant is psychology. It has always been my distant, beckoning goal and now since I have hit upon the neuroses, it has come so much the nearer.” – I think that for many people, philosophy represents precisely what psychology represented for Freud.

    It seems to me that, for certain ‘natures’, philosophy seems to be a fit so perfect that anything else would be a ‘forced’ occupation (of course, for some people, philosophy itself is a ‘forced’ activity, as anyone who has experienced that person in an undergraduate class can attest to). If you are one of these natures and are also fortunate enough to get yourself into a position where you can literally philosophize all day – think about and write arguments (simply the elegance and language of a well thought out argument makes some people’s hearts flutter!) and get paid to do so (extremely well in some cases), then surely this makes existence itself worth it.

    Teaching and studying philosophy also represents a kind of freedom for this kind of person; to put it simply, to exercise that deep inner will that quietly moves them towards philosophy – that is, towards the most fundamental questions of existence and being in the first place. If you have this kind of disposition then it seems to me that you simply cannot escape pursuing a path (regardless of whatever dismal job market awaits you!) where you at least try to get this kind of freedom, freedom from occupations that are numbing and dehumanizing (and indeed, presumably for a person with such a disposition, anything other than studying and teaching philosophy would constitute such a destitute state of affairs), freedom from what would be an utter waste of your time, freedom from, to put it quite generally, chains and bondage of earning a living doing any other secondary activity!

    Reply
  11. Bennett Gilbert

    Boy howdy, the PhD-prospective correspondent hit the nail on the head.

    Three of the reasons I study philosophy are:

    –It gives me the best, widest viewpoint I know of the whole movement of human knowledge, human development, and the history of human culture: like watching moving water, flowing from a spring, refreshing, and flowing again (really!)

    –It promotes understanding of thinkers who, far more capably than I, have experienced and have reflected upon life, in ways at once like my own and very unlike my own.

    –Philosophy and philosophers help me grope toward answers to the greatest and unceasing question: what is the next right thing to do?

    Reply
  12. Joel Dittmer

    I have students who want to continue talking (which is doing) philosophy after class. When this happens on days that I’m not “feeling it”, I remind myself how lucky I am to get paid to be talking with students, and how I get to be part of something that is important to other people – namely my students. Grad school (8 years of it) was tough for me, as it probably is for a lot of others, but it was enjoyable for the most part; it really enriched the curious part of me. I don’t know if grad school training has made me a better person, but I believe it has made me a much more focused thinker, a much clearer communicator, and overall a way less dogmatic person. It scares me to think that I would not be these things, as well as being open-minded, if it weren’t for my grad school experience. If you can get into and persevere through philosophy grad school and minimize your debt obligation (which can be realistically done), then I say go for it! Best of luck, and I’m thankful for your post. (This is the first time I’ve ever commented on a blog, although I’m a reader of quite a few including this one; your inquiry compelled me to report on my positive, enriching experience in doing philosophy, including my grad school apprenticeship. So, thanks!)

    Reply
  13. jenny

    Over at What is it Like to be a Woman in Philosophy, we have a page specifically devoted to reasons to stay, despite all the problems: http://beingawomaninphilosophy.wordpress.com/why-stay/

    Reply
  14. Michael Rosen

    At the beginning of June I attended a conference in Berlin in honour of Rolf-Peter Horstmann’s 70th birthday. It went on for four days, focused on Metaphysics in Kant and Hegel and was full of Rolf’s friends and students who’d come together from around the world: many famous names like Paul Guyer, Beatrice Longuenesse, Robert Pippin and Eckart Foerster and quite a few not-yet-so famous ones. It was a great occasion, not just because the papers were really good and the discussion vigorous and friendly, but because everyone was united in admiration and affection for Rolf. So, demanding and tiring though it was, it still felt like a party.

    I’m not saying that everyone can have a career like Rolf’s – we don’t all have his talent (or his personality) – but, if you’re a decent person and work hard, you can expect that, at the end, there will be a body of people who respect and are grateful to you, just for having pursued seriously a subject that is fascinating and important in itself. (And – though this may not mean much to those just starting out – where else can you still be active and productive in your career at 70?)

    I appreciate this discussion because I think of the PGR and the issues around it as a necessary evil. In an ideal world, we would concentrate on doing good philosophy with like-minded others and allow the bad to wither on its own, without worrying about which department is in the top 10, 20 or whatever. But that is not the world we live in. Universities trade in (and trade on) reputations all the time and, since that is so, Brian is absolutely right to try to give those judgements some impartial basis. We should all be grateful to him for the scrupulousness with which he does it, even if it may help to encourage an instrumental “league table” mentality. Likewise, we shouldn’t be indifferent to abuses. No one should have to put up with the kind of nonsense Lionel McPherson shared with us earlier this summer. It’s greatly to this blog’s credit that Lionel felt able to air his experiences here and that people reacted, as it seemed to me, so constructively. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the good things.

    Reply
  15. Tim

    The best part for me is being around a perpetually renewing group of inquisitive and intelligent undergrads who, for better or for worse, are largely unencumbered by professional considerations and just love philosophy.

    Reply
  16. kurt

    You mean other than "indoor work, no heavy lifting"? Of course there are profound issues–as mentioned–and there is the eternal aspect that large parts of most cultures find what philosophers do irrelevant, superfluous, narcissistic, silly, and pointless. Sometimes these complaints are quite justified, of course. But being able to make a decent living surrounded, generally, by smart, informed, curious people who are willing to think about things, from the prosaic to the profound, in ways few others do, is a pretty good gig.

    Reply
  17. Rob Tempio

    Why don't we let the "in-house philosopher" at Google answer this:

    http://chronicle.com/article/From-Technologist-to/128231/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en

    Reply
  18. Ben

    I love doing philosophy — I think about philosophy pretty much all the time — and sometimes it amazes me that I actually get paid to do what I love.

    The rest is more about academia in general than philosophy in particular, but I thought it might be worth mentioning anyway.

    As one of my former colleagues put it, outside of academia people think they're lucky if there's five percent of their jobs that they're not alienated from, whereas in academia we complain if there's five percent of our jobs that we are alienated from.

    We have an incredible amount of autonomy and flexibility. We have department chairs, but they're not bosses: we still get to decide which topics we want to work on. No one is saying "Drop everything else — I need a paper on the definition of knowledge by the end of the week." And it's not a 9-to-5 job. Relatively few hours per week — classes, office hours, meetings — are fixed. If you work best before 9, or after 5, you can. I don't know if I'd be able to survive in a job where I had to show up from 9 to 5 every day and had someone telling me what to work on.

    Reply
  19. Ben

    As it turns out, pretty much everything I said was already said on the really good page that jenny linked to above: http://beingawomaninphilosophy.wordpress.com/why-stay/.

    Reply
  20. Amy Lara

    I frequently find myself having lunch at the student union, sitting at a table with faculty from physics, art, music, math, architecture, engineering, english, etc. We get into the most fascinating conversations. I learn about the latest developments in other fields, and I feel like my philosophical contribution is valued. Those silly lunches over bad food are one of the highlights of my professional life.

    Reply
  21. Marcus Arvan

    Life in philosophy for me has been something like a long-term relationship with another person. It's been a difficult road, full of uncertainty, worry, success, and yes, failure. There were even times – several years ago in graduate school – where I just about fell out of love with philosophy altogether. Make no mistake, a career in philosophy is not for the faint-hearted. And yet I now wake up most every morning absolutely loving what I do, as eager to solve and discuss philosophical problems as I was as a college freshman seventeen years ago. I think that's pretty cool, and I say if you love it, go for it. Try not to focus on the bad administrators and worrying about what other people think of your work (though, by all means, do learn from them!). Just love the thing itself, focus on the philosophical problems that move you in your own unique way, and work your butt off. I can only speak for myself, but I'll bet you that as long as you don't lose sight of these things, you won't regret your choice.

    Reply
  22. Mark Schroeder

    I have to confess that studying philosophy has treated me fantastically well. My first two years of graduate school were absolutely the most exciting time of my life; there is nothing more exhilarating than being exposed to so many new ideas and having so many smart, enthusiastic people to talk to about them. For those two years alone, graduate school in philosophy would have been worth it, no matter what followed. But I've been extremely fortunate, in that every year of my career so far has brought new and exciting developments and challenges. That's not to say that everything has been easy, or free from heartache. But one of the greatest growing experiences I've had was when it truly clicked for me the extent to which I could learn from the rejection of my work.

    Over time, commitments have chipped away at the liberating sense in graduate school that my time was mine to spend as a I please. But I have an amazingly supportive network of administrators and colleagues, I have brilliant colleagues not only at USC but around the world who continually amaze me, I get to see freshmen eyes open to the power of thinking self-critically about their own actions, and I increasingly get to take pride in the accomplishments of a whole new generation of philosophers. There are people around the world with whom I share an immediate connection simply because our shared interests are common knowledge and because we're familiar with one another's work, which is something I never would have realized when I chose this life but has become one of the most rewarding things about it. Every year it's more humbling to realize how lucky I am to get to take part in it all.

    Reply
  23. Jim Nichols

    I'm taking a wonderful class on Hannah Arendt this summer with Prof. Sandra Dwyer at Georgia State University.

    Every afternoon as I leave her class and am surrounded by the suburbanite mass exodus of Atlanta known as rush hour I think through and unravel the different threads from class lecture/discussion. I'm not racing home, i'm not stressed out about x, y, or z. I'm just walking, enjoying the warmth of the sun, or cool beads of summer rain.

    I notice the dead eyed stare of others steping over or around the homeless people and it seems detached.

    Nietzsche may be right that all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. But the sense of pleasure and privilege, the feeling of true engagement with philosophical questions that I have as I walk to my car isn't just about Arendt's work. It comes from the opportunity to learn from and with those who have spent time a great deal of time honing skills and depth of knowledge.

    There is a peace of mind and sense of privilege that comes from learning to think through the questions great minds have worked through. But without my teachers its a moment of privilege that I would never know of.

    At the end of the day my bachelors degree in Philosophy will hang on a wall, a bureaucratic stamp of approval that I received x credit hours of work and am now employable.

    But when people ask what I learned I'll be able to pause and reflect back on my afternoon walks and tell them that its not what I learned in class, its what I learned everyday walking home from class…

    Reply
  24. Mark Silcox

    There is a special value in the study of philosophy for inhabitants of civilizations such as the USA that are going through fairly precipitous periods of cultural and economic decline. Philosophical reflection is a source of cheap, reliable, sustainable, and utterly private enjoyment that liberates one from the needed to associate one's own well-being with that of any nation-state or cultural association. And teaching philosophy to impressionable, psychologically vulnerable young people feels less like a job and more like a vocation in these sorts of circumstances than it would in more prosperous times.

    Reply
  25. Reginald Williams

    My main criterion for 'great job', which has been said in so many words, is that when my official teaching duties are fulfilled, I keep doing on my own what I am paid to do: I keep doing philosophy. Indeed, despite being paid salary, I do not mind staying after class, discussing philosophy, arguing with students, etc. It's wonderful to have a job that one is inspired to keep doing, after the financial incentive is gone.

    I would add that I teach 5/5, which any R1 or state university professor will consider insane. While I don't want it increased, though, even this heavy load only entails 15 hours of teaching per week and five office hours. This actually does leave time for research and writing, and of course a lot of grading, which can be done at home, at the beach, out of state over a long weekend, etc. Another great advantage of my job.

    Finally, unless I overlooked it, one advantage that is worth underscoring here is GOOD HEALTH CARE. This is worth underscoring because, sure enough, some administrators would like to reduce this advantage of our jobs with their budget woes.

    Reply
  26. Anon

    I have a law degree as well as a PhD in philosophy. I recently attended my law school 5th year reunion, and even though I was, at the time, quite unsure if I'd have a job at all come August, when the post-doc I had at the time ended, and even though my former class-mates had been making 3-5 times as much money (or more) than I had for the last 5 years, they almost all looked less well and seemed less happy than me. (I'm sort of a gloomy guy by nature, too, so it wasn't just our natural dispositions.) Almost no one talked about how happy they were, even those in secure jobs. (The law job market isn't great, either.) It made me quite sure that I was happy to be in philosophy, even somewhat insecurely, rather than working at a bit law firm.

    Reply
  27. Jeff H

    The much-maligned Richard Rorty would occasionally say something about "edifying philosophy" and when I found the philosophy profession corroding through the few remaining fibers holding my tattered soul together, edifying philosophy would often be my saving grace. In my current graduate program I have met some of the nastiest people I have ever met, people that made me worry all-the-more about the irredeemability of the human species. And yet, these awful experiences have been at least canceled out, if not utterly made-up-for, by being able to work with some of the very best people I have ever met. People who not only exude a genuine concern with morality (rather than with an ethics career) but also people interested in providing their students with very useful bits of "edifying" philosophy, bits that can allow a person to conquer their inner demons and utterly transform themselves, or at least learn a little bit more about how to live with wisdom and decency in this world of ours. For me, these wonderful nuggets of 'edification' could not have come from anywhere save from philosophy, and that has made all the difference.

    Reply
  28. Rich Muirhead

    I wonder if the original anonymous e-mailer might benefit from a little time working in the private sector (assuming s/he doesn't already have any such experience). Having experienced both the private sector and academia, I've come to this: wherever there are people, there are politics. Any workplace you care to mention will include among its denizens the full range of human personalities, from the best to the worst and everything in between. And don't believe for once second the rhetoric about the "efficiency" and "discipline" that is forced upon private-sector enterprises by competition and concern with the bottom line. Hogwash. The private sector is full of people getting paid very good money to make very poor decisions and run businesses very inefficiently.

    My point is this: inasmuch as life outside academic philosophy doesn't really offer a respite from any of the evils mentioned by the anonymous student, would you rather have to put up with those evils while doing something you actually find interesting, or while doing some soul-crushing job helping some other jackass make money off of your efforts? To my mind, that's a no-brainer.

    Reply

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