American Philosophy
American Philosophy
I take a distant, almost forensic, interest is the state of American philosophy. It is not what it was. It is nowhere near as good. It verges on the bad. All the excellent departments are in decline and soon will be mediocre at best. Once the last of the older faculty, now in their eighties, are gone the younger remnants will not compare to their illustrious forbears. Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, UCLA, Rutgers, NYU (I could go on) will soon be pale shadows of their former selves (they are already). The people in these places are just not as smart, not as original, not as literate as their predecessors (sorry, but it’s true). Many, in my view, are just plain useless–glorified graduate students at best. Relative to their contemporaries, they might seem okay, but judged more absolutely, they are a bunch of nobodies—dull, inept, uninspiring. Why is this? Philosophy has never been richer money-wise, teaching loads are lighter, the technology is greatly superior—it’s the people. To me they seem philistine and uneducated, callow and conformist. Is it the general state of the culture—people have just become less intelligent? Is it the internet? It can’t be television (that old scapegoat).
I think it is a combination of factors: entertainment culture, the decline of reading, fear of the new, and the abandonment of meritocracy. I think of my younger colleagues in days past: dull, institutional, narrowly careerist, unoriginal, boring, limited. Add to this the drive towards “diversity”, which is dangerously close to being anti-meritocratic. With it we have a loss of respect for objective intellectual values. Here feminists (so-called) have a lot to answer for. The Left has grown increasingly anti-rational and anti-truth. The right has always been pure ideology and rabidly anti-intellectual. People have become (more) spineless and brainless. What is the solution? There is none, except to bleat on about how things used to be and could be again. We are entering the philosophical dark ages. It has been a long time since I heard anything interesting from anyone under sixty (or even seventy). Philosophy is in a bad state, and I wonder how long it can last. It has always been under suspicion and now the chopping-block looms.
I think you are broadly right about the state of current American philosophy. These points, understood statistically and not as black and white absolutes, seem spot on: “The Left has grown increasingly anti-rational and anti-truth. The right has always been pure ideology and rabidly anti-intellectual.” I believe that UK, Canada and Australia are not in a better shape though.
I don’t know those countries so well. Do you think their decline has been as steep as in America?
The other bad outcome is for a stasis to afflict philosophy. The term for it is scholasticism, if I remember. Why is it getting appreciably and obviously worse rather than just getting in a rut?
I have some idea of what makes a world class tennis player, less so a philosopher. You come off as self made and independent minded. Is it that today’s subpar generation just lack the talent? Making a philosopher can’t be so impossible.
They clearly lack the talent; the question is why. I actually had a lot of help from my teachers. It isn’t difficult to make a mediocre philosopher.
A major factor is the complete collapse of education in America, from kindergarten through universities, at least at the undergraduate level. There are no standards whatsoever, and no serious reading or thinking is required. At the University of Michigan, nearly 75 percent of all grades are A+, A, or A-. Recent generations have grown up without adequately developing their minds during the most important formative period of their lives.
This is bound to affect not only philosophy but other disciplines as well. I wonder in particular about the sciences.
I completely agree: people need to be challenged during those formative years or they remain perpetually immature intellectually. It should be a struggle not a doddle. Even graduate students these days are mentally puerile.