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TimMason · 08-23-2010, 04:15 AM

I suspect that this is a little unfair. First of all, there are technical questions that philosophers have to look at, and that are not such as can be very usefully discussed using the language of the ordinary educated reader. The fact that you or I do not understand this stuff doesn't mean that it isn't philosophy, or that it's not necessary to the overall project.

Secondly, I can think of a number of philosophers who do speak to the issues of the day. In France they range from the TV stars like Bernard Henri-Lévy (everybody hates him, but he still sells a lot of books) through to the more austere figures such as Alain Badiou who, though much of his stuff is heavy going, sometimes descends into the political arena with a readable text, as he did recently after the election of Sarkozy to the presidence.

In the UK, philosophers like Julian Baggini, Sarah Bakewell, or Slavoj Zizek make regular appearances in the newspapers - Bakewell's recent series on Montaigne was very well received.

In the USA a number of philosophers direct their work to questions of the day. Rawls' work still leads to comment and argument. Dennett talks forcefully about religion and biology. One could write a fairly long list.

So it may well be true that there are large numbers of academic place-servers hiding out in our universities. The same could be said for a number of disciplines - including the scientific ones (only a very small number of the papers actually published are cited by other scientists). But I don't think we can really claim that there's a dearth of philosophers willing to bring their wisdom to us.

On the other hand, we may be a little more sceptical about that wisdom than used to be the case. Today, people challenge the scientists, the philosophers, the doctors - everyone in our democratic age is equal to the experts after spending five minutes with Wikipedia. Or Glenn Beck. More people have been educated to a higher degree than ever before, and more people have the critical skills needed to argue right back at the academic. When a philosopher writes for the comment section in the Guardian blog, he or she is likely to be roundly criticized by a bunch of nobodies. Some of them don't like it very much.

08-23-2010, 04:15 AM	#902
TimMason Big Ears Posts: 191 Karma: 2229 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Pontoise, France Device: Onyx Boox 60, iPad	I suspect that this is a little unfair. First of all, there are technical questions that philosophers have to look at, and that are not such as can be very usefully discussed using the language of the ordinary educated reader. The fact that you or I do not understand this stuff doesn't mean that it isn't philosophy, or that it's not necessary to the overall project. Secondly, I can think of a number of philosophers who do speak to the issues of the day. In France they range from the TV stars like Bernard Henri-Lévy (everybody hates him, but he still sells a lot of books) through to the more austere figures such as Alain Badiou who, though much of his stuff is heavy going, sometimes descends into the political arena with a readable text, as he did recently after the election of Sarkozy to the presidence. In the UK, philosophers like Julian Baggini, Sarah Bakewell, or Slavoj Zizek make regular appearances in the newspapers - Bakewell's recent series on Montaigne was very well received. In the USA a number of philosophers direct their work to questions of the day. Rawls' work still leads to comment and argument. Dennett talks forcefully about religion and biology. One could write a fairly long list. So it may well be true that there are large numbers of academic place-servers hiding out in our universities. The same could be said for a number of disciplines - including the scientific ones (only a very small number of the papers actually published are cited by other scientists). But I don't think we can really claim that there's a dearth of philosophers willing to bring their wisdom to us. On the other hand, we may be a little more sceptical about that wisdom than used to be the case. Today, people challenge the scientists, the philosophers, the doctors - everyone in our democratic age is equal to the experts after spending five minutes with Wikipedia. Or Glenn Beck. More people have been educated to a higher degree than ever before, and more people have the critical skills needed to argue right back at the academic. When a philosopher writes for the comment section in the Guardian blog, he or she is likely to be roundly criticized by a bunch of nobodies. Some of them don't like it very much. Last edited by TimMason; 08-23-2010 at 04:17 AM.