CFP: What is Philosophy? Past, Present and Future

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.

2020

(Bonus material: a critique of the genesis myth of Western philosophy as well as of the exclusions and policing practices of both analytic and continental traditions)

transcultural studies, 2016

In this volume, scholars in the human sciences from different countries examine the meaning of philosophical knowledge today. The answer to the question of what is philosophical knowledge is not self-evident because of different cultural traditions in which national philosophies are situated. Thus philosophical knowledge can be understood as knowledge of history of philosophy, or of philosophical systems, schools and methodologies; or it can be seen as the ability to solve philosophical problems. Sometimes philosophical investigations affect not philosophy alone, but extend to other disciplines. One significant fact is that the problem of philosophical knowledge is not restricted to the theory of philosophy, but reflects the situation in philosophy itself, as well as the status of philosophy among other human sciences and its social prestige in general. Whether we still need philosophy today, in the period of total austerity, will depend upon what criteria we use to define the image of philosophy and its knowledge. On the other hand, the concerns about philosophy today – diagnosed in the present volume – are not merely intra-disciplinary; they are decisive for social outcomes in the world of today. These social outcomes – for educational curricula, for the position of women and minorities, for the political process and the formation of civil society – are the focus of the papers in this issue. In its totality, the issue offers an overview of the contemporary situation in philosophy in different countries in the ‘new’ Europe, which allows reflection about the differences and general tendencies in its development.

Choice Reviews Online, 2013

Cosmos & History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 2012

This is the editorial introduction to a special edition of Cosmos & History on the future of philosophy subsequent to the elimination of philosophy from Middlesex University and assaults on philosophy by university managers around the world. .

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.

She has always existed and is more than a citizen of multiverses,‭ ‬most likely the ground of all.‭ ‬In the West she was introduced around C.570‭ ‬and since then many individuals have searched for her,‭ ‬tried to become familiar with her and created all sorts of,‭ ‬frequently ridiculous,‭ ‬things in her name. Once someone has a passion for her it cannot be extinguished but increases.‭ ‬Objectively this need for her is referred to as‭ ‘‬love of wisdom‭’‬,‭ ‬the need for wisdom,‭ ‬while personally it is a need of some individuals. This passion and need has become institutionalized and it has developed a discourse and became a socio-cultural practice of its own.‭ ‬Fairly recently it has even become a discipline at,‭ ‬mostly higher,‭ ‬institutions of learning.‭ ‬Previously those searching for and attempting to interact with her came from many walks of life and all kinds of professions,‭ ‬while in the last century or so many people began to live off her as they are remunerated for talking about,‭ ‬about the history of searching for and investigating her and saying all sorts of things about her. Many things are done in her name and all sorts of neologisms are fabricated to label them,‭ ‬such as analytic,‭ ‬continental,‭ ‬idealism,‭ ‬rationalism,‭ ‬empiricism,‭ ‬and all these labels are again specified and specified ad infinitum with terms such as materialism,‭ ‬physicalism,‭ ‬weak naturalism,‭ ‬speculative and new realism,‭ ‬etc. Individuals from many other disciplines and areas of life,‭ ‬such as sociology,‭ ‬the arts,‭ ‬humanities,‭ ‬cognitive sciences,‭ ‬sport,‭ ‬etc got on the bandwagon so that we now have a philosophy or love of wisdom,‭ ‬epistemologies,‭ ‬ontologies etc of everything under the sun.‭ ‬Even if you were to write some theses or do some study you will stipulate your epistemology,‭ ‬ontology,‭ ‬methodology,‭ ‬etc.‭ ‬Just as those who live off philosophy become involved in every area of humanity and all its socio-cultural practices produce so-called peer reviewed publications,‭ ‬articles,‭ ‬essays and books on philosophy of art,‭ ‬sport,‭ ‬humanities,‭ ‬cognitive sciences,‭ ‬religion,‭ ‬gods,‭ ‬sex,‭ ‬rock‭ ‘‬n roll,‭ ‬language,‭ ‬words,‭ ‬ideas,‭ ‬how words and ideas and concepts do their thing,‭ ‬etc,‭ ‬etc.‭ The way these subject-matter are treated will usually consists of some form of reasoning,‭ ‬the use of arguments or argumentation and some kind of logic and a process that resembles the features,‭ ‬steps,‭ ‬stages and processes of theorizing,‭ ‬the construction and development of models,‭ ‬short term,‭ ‬medium or large theories.‭ ‬The latter is often presented in the form of entire‭ ‘‬metaphysical‭’ ‬and speculative systems such as those of Plato,‭ ‬Aristotle,‭ ‬Kant,‭ ‬Hegel,‭ ‬Marx,‭ ‬Husserl,‭ ‬Habermas et al.‭ ‬While Socrates and to some extent the later Wittgenstein attempted to be more authentic to the original principles of trying to follow and developed the ideal of identifying,‭ ‬capturing by verbal interaction‭ (‬be it discourse,‭ ‬or dialogue‭) ‬and becoming one‭ (‬like mystics of all religions who are passionate about‭ ‘‬the one‭’‬,‭ ‬the Beloved,‭ ‬the one Real Self,‭ ‬etc and attempt to become one,‭ ‬united with or‭ ‘‬oned‭’ ‬with their object or subject of desire‭) ‬with Sophos‭ – ‬by exploring and investigating or applying and executing practical use of language,‭ ‬and thereby to uncover and capture her. The effects of the institutionalization of the discipline are far-reaching and the professionalization of the role of philosopher as a‭ ‘‬profession‭’‬,‭ ‬an employee of an institution and a representative of the status quo are discussed in a number of articles being cited. The methods of the philosophical discourse vary,‭ ‬first of all between the so-called Continental and Anglophone Analytic philosophies,‭ ‬its movements,‭ ‬schools and institutions,‭ ‬such as research universities,‭ ‬journals,‭ ‬communities and book publishers.‭ ‬It seems as if increasingly philosophizing employs some of the stages and steps of the processes of theorizing.‭ ‬Other aspects of her methods are heuristic devices,‭ ‬the use of metaphors and analogies,‭ ‬philosophical logic,‭ ‬informal and other types of logic,‭ ‬arguments and argumentation.‭ ‬This involves the creation of fallacies in thinking and reasoning and the causing of all sorts of fallacies or crooked thinking. The nature and changes of philosophical subject-matter are discussed as the socio-cultural practice lost most of its traditional‭ ‘‬objects‭’ ‬with the social and cultural differentiation of other,‭ ‬specialized disciplines.‭ ‬In turn the discourse attempts to fabricate other subject-matter,‭ ‬for example the development of so-called Experimental Philosophy,‭ ‬inter-disciplinary studies such as cognitive sciences and philosophies or meta-level explorations of and speculations about other disciplines,‭ ‬professions and domains‭ (‬for example normative,‭ ‬instrumental and subjective aesthetic‭ – ‬this the terminology and distinctions according to the working class obsessive Critical Theory of the so-called Frankfurt Schule.‭ ‬One always wonders what degree of personal experience their educated,‭ ‬middle class academics have of‭ ‘‬the working class‭’‬,‭ ‬whatever that is meant to be‭?)) ‬of human activity.‭ ‬Such as philosophy of medicine,‭ ‬sport,‭ ‬art,‭ ‬religion,‭ ‬just name it and it is bound to exist.‭ Another‭ ‘‬extension‭’ ‬of or interest in‭ ‘‬philosophy‭’ ‬is that of certain individuals,‭ ‬schools or movements in other disciplines,‭ ‬for example social‭ ‘‬sciences‭’ ‬such as sociology and supporters of the above mentioned‭ ‘‬Schule‭’‬.‭ ‬They frequently use philosophical words such as ontology,‭ ‬epistemology,‭ ‬multi-dimensional,‭ ‬many-levels,‭ ‬contexts assumptions,‭ ‬pre-suppositions,‭ ‬immanent,‭ ‬transcendent,‭ ‬etc.‭ ‬Is this intended to be an extension of philosophy and the doing of philosophizing or merely cognitive bias of the form‭ ‘‬authority bias‭’‬.‭ ‬In this case the authority being‭ ‘‬the discipline of philosophy‭’‬,‭ ‬as well as the‭ ’‬use of the word philosophy‭ ‬and terms from the philosophical discourse‭’‬.‭

The Crisis of the Human Sciences: False Objectivity and the Decline of Creativity, 2011

My primary goal in this article is to address the question of philosophy’s role as a core discipline in the curriculum of most Liberal Arts institutions. Of necessity, the discussion below will hardly be exhaustive, and will at best highlight a direction for a more comprehensive answer. But any attempt to discuss the relevance of philosophy in whatever context inevitably leads to a more general and traditional question of the nature of philosophy itself. Philosophy is quite notorious among other disciplines for its never-ending self-reflective speculations, at all times trying to define itself and find its proper place in the family of other academic subjects. Indeed, this perennial feeling of insecurity about its proper status is what initially sets philosophy apart from the disciplines exhibiting a much more confident posture. Moreover, philosophy’s ongoing crisis of identity, which one could perhaps tolerate in a new and immature discipline, seems to get worse with age. Yet, before we can decide whether this apparent lack of confidence in the pronouncements of the philosophers regarding their own subject matter is philosophy’s serious flaw or its special advantage, it will be helpful to briefly outline several important developmental tendencies that philosophy has shown during its long history.

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.