Some people are natural philosophers. The very first time that they are exposed to philosophical thinking it explodes in their brain like a bomb going off. Not only do they see that philosophers question basic assumptions and try to get to the bottom of things. They also instinctively want to try to do it themselves. With very few exceptions we professional philosophers are people like this and so should be able to understand what it is like to go through this again for the first time.
Being a natural philosopher causes lots of problems for people. For one thing it is very exciting and more than a little addictive. Once you start you want to do it all the time. At first it interferes with your relationships with people who are not natural philosophers--they think you are being more than a little tedious and argumentative. And you, for your part, are astonished that everyone isn't just as fascinated by these ideas as you are. So relationships can suffer at least at first. Second, philosophy seems to give you a God's eye view of things. It can cause an ego to swell rapidly to enormous proportions. Thinking about things from this angle can make one feel infinitely superior to the common rabble who are immersed in ordinary life. This is potentially very dangerous and harmful to people. How do we communicate to those we have "infected" with philosophy that it does not mean that they are better than other people? Finally, I worry about those who graduate with degrees in philosophy and are clearly addicted but are not going to make careers as professional philosophers. Honestly only a very tiny percentage of our majors will be professors some day. But a substantial percentage of our majors are addicted to philosophy and will have a hard time adjusting to a world where they won't get their daily philosophy fix! What do we do for these addicts to prepare them to adjust to the "real world."
Have others thought about these issues? Do you have helpful ideas to share?
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3 comments:
I've seen several colleagues leave academic philosophy to pursue careers in law; and I've reluctantly recommended law school to students interested in "practical" applications of philosophy (particularly since law is a field where the problems you've pointed out--tedious arguments and inflated ego--are so prevalent as to go unnoticed). But that hasn't been a satisfying solution.
The only other instance I can think of is recommending to a student who was interested in (and reasonably good at) symbolic logic that he look into computer programming (a suggestion which he didn't like at all).
Insofar as I've been the student you describe (pursued the graduate degree but struggled to find adequate employment), I can certainly relate to the question. But I don't have any clear answers. I'll be curious to read what others might have to offer.
Craig,
I hope others will too. On a practical side other than law school I also recommend Library Science. spending your life in a library isn't so bad and with the older generation of librarians rapidly retiring, it's opening up a bit.
But I am also concerned with the spiritual danger of philosophy. Studied in the wrong atmosphere or superficially it can inflate the ego to unhealthy proportions. How do we help our students avoid a God-complex?
These are all great questions.
I am struck by Richard's pointing out how relationships initially can suffer. This past semester, the students in my senior seminar brought this up a lot -- their struggles to find others who were willing to have discussions like this. Already aware of this problem, the faculty of our department had written into our philosophy department learning goals this goal: to help our students learn to "communicate effectively to a variety of audiences about philosophical questions and ideas." And so I worked with this with my students in this class -- helping them to learn how to become more aware of and sensitive to audience and able to change the way they talked about things to match the interests of those they talk to.
My students in this course were also worried about how to continue to be philosophically engaged in life beyond college. (Most of our students do not go on to graduate school in philosophy either.) Some do go onto law school and law careers, as well as other intellectually-stimulating occupations. But others really struggle to find a way to keep their philosophical interests and perspectives alive.
Here is what I see them doing (so far): they write to me and other former philosophy professors; they read and respond to the Philosophy Blog we have set up; some keep reading on their own. Those who succeed at keeping their interests alive are good at finding friends who share intellectual or philosophical interests.
In our senior seminar, we have students think specifically about how to connect philosophy to other dimensions of life in a wide variety of ways.
But even so, I remain troubled by these questions.
And I'll have to think more about the "spiritual dangers" question! We have "epistemic humility" as another of our learning goals, and, in that, we remain a little insulated from some of the dangers present in the wider world of academic philosophy!
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