On philosophy: notes from a crisis

This article offers the motivation for organising a conference on philosophy as it is practised across several faculties and departments at the University of Cambridge. It also offers an overview of the main themes that emerge in the essays collected in this issue of Metaphilosophy, which derive from the aforementioned conference. In particular it focuses on the risk of scholasticism and dogmatism that philosophy faces when it divorces itself from its own history, other disciplines, and real life. It then discusses the potential problems that can arise from the practice of philosophy in close conjunction with other disciplines, such as the natural sciences and the history of philosophy. Finally, it briefly comments on how institutional/academic structures have an influence on the way philosophy is practised.

2014

Is philosophy dead? Stephen Hawking has said so, and Neil deGrasse Tyson has warned students away from it. This book responds by explaining why philosophy is relevant in contemporary American society. It may not be dead, but it is troubled by its invisibility and an appearance of irrelevance, at least some of this its own making. The author offers an explanation of how modern philosophy found itself marginalized within academic cubicles and offers a thesis on what kind of job philosophy might do in a contemporary society that is intellectually, morally and spiritually adrift. That job: identify, clarify, and critically evaluate prevailing worldviews as they are embodied in institutions and cultural practices, or make themselves manifest in contemporary cultural events.

International Journal of Social Science and Human Research 6(2), 2023

Philosophical reflection is needed to be focused on in times where there is a sense of instability and change which could also lead to revolution from the ills of society among most nations. For example, African leaders are mostly concerned with filling their pockets despite the fact that they took an oath to office during their invitation into political seats of power by the masses. Coupled with this, is the psychological turbulence that is fundamentally visible among the masses who but cannot be swayed by the wave of change. In spite the fact that most emerging economies can still be located in the African space, the wave of globalization has had its effects on many spheres of life. The importance of philosophy is to promote peace, and harmony in all areas of life, be it socio-political or economic sphere Philosophers like Plato in VII of his republic has started that unless kings become philosopher kings, then there would not be one single iota of wisdom which is going to be applied for more stability in nation states towards development, and nation building that ensure a smooth transition from one government to another irrespective of turbulence. Based on this, the paper being a qualitative research examines philosophy and its application to global turbulence era.

Why Philosophy?, 2019

In addition to the long-standing divide between so-called 'analytic' and so-called 'continental' philosophy, philosophy is challenged in the political realm and concerns about public spending for philosophy increase. This is matched with a growing effort to popularize philosophy, bringing it into the public sphere. The effort to secure support for philosophy highlights the ambiguity of philosophical demarcation tactics, especially in a post-truth era which tends to underline science and technology education contra philosophy. But as with a concern for the history of science, philosophy's past may yet prove useful in the future. Looking at both hermeneutics and history, inviting more than the usual cast of favorite authors into our intellectual network, it may be possible to bring philosophy into more global and pluralist expressions.

Research in Phenomenology, 2019

The Philosophical Forum, 2022

A call for a greater international focus in the academic study of philosophy, and a discussion of the establishment of The Philosophical Forum as a source for “World Philosophy”. Editor’s Note from 53(1), 2022.

2024

This short essay establishes that the 'philosophy of suspicion', generalized doubt and deconstruction, has brought about the so-called 'theory', which prevails within the humanities and the arts, by transforming the insights of deconstruction into pseudo-scientific, absolute, atemporal and undoubted truths. This text is one of seven essays written for the exhibition DAUWRAUW. A Bruegelian landscape in Bornem (Belgium) from June 30 to September 30 - 2024.

It has at various times been said, both before and since the fall of apartheid, that philosophers in South Africa are neglecting to do certain sorts of work. Behind this accusation lies a general claim that philosophers have responsibilities to their contexts. This essay is dedicated to (i) defending this claim against objections, and (ii) offering a positive argument for there being moral pressure on philosophers to increase understanding. My aim is not to accuse any philosopher or community of philosophers of neglect. It is rather to defend an understanding of both philosophy and ethical responsibilities that makes room for philosophers to have moral responsibilities. Whether or not it has ever in fact been appropriate to accuse philosophers in South Africa, or indeed anywhere else, of neglect, philosophers do indeed have responsibilities to their contexts.

2018

Although there have never been so many professional philosophers as today, most of the questions discussed by today’s philosophers are of no interest to cultured people at large. Specifically, several scientists have maintained that philosophy has become an irrelevant subject. Thus philosophy is at a crossroads: either to continue on the present line, which relegates it into irrelevance, or to analyse the reasons of the irrelevance and seek an escape. This paper is an attempt to explore the second alternative. keywords: Specialist view of philosophical work, Philosophy as acquisition of knowledge, Ordinary philosophy, Extraordinary philosophy abstraCt: Sebbene non vi siano mai stati tanti filosofi di professione quanti Sebbene non vi siano mai stati tanti filosofi di professione quanti oggi, la maggior parte delle questioni discusse dai filosofi odierni non è interessante per le persone colte in generale. Specificamente, parecchi scienziati hanno affermato che la filosofia è diventa...

Philosophy as a Way of LIfe: History, Dimensions, Directions, 2021

Conclusion [preprint-draft only] to Philosophy as a Way of Life: History, Dimensions, Directions (M. Sharpe & M. Ure, Bloomsbury July 2021). The opening poses the continuing metaphilosophical question of what philosophy could be, in a period where the natural and human sciences have declared their independence from their historical, disciplinary 'alma mater'. Next, we summarize our findings concerning the declines and rebirths of the ancient idea of philosophy as a way of life, and its predominant features (with reference to an account identifying ten features of this paradigm, and twelve forms of intellectual and spiritual exercises). The picture as we present it is more complex than sometimes envisaged. We then examine recurrent criticisms of the idea of philosophy as a way of life: that admitting spiritual exercises (Hadot) or technologies of the self (Foucault) means that the specificity of philosophy, as against rhetoric or 'religion', is lost; that any post-Hadotian approach leads to a relativistic historicization of philosophical discourses; that philosophical self-cultivation must be egoistic or apolitical; and that post-Socratic philosophical self-care is passion- and life-denying. We close by examining philosophy as a way of life today, and its prospects within academic settings, and beyond them in phenomena like modern Stoicism as academic philosophy continues to experience stressors and marginalization in the period of marketization.