Is It Enough (or Even Permissible) to be a Professional Philosopher?

We all know that Plato thought that once one has been liberated from the cave, learned that the world is more than images, come to to understand the forms and, finally, experienced the Good, it is one's responsibility to go back into the cave and rescue the unfortunate prisoners still inside. In Plato's mind, as a philosopher it is one's responsibility to lead people to a Good life in a Just society. Hence, in the Republic, philosophers are kings.

Suppose we think this is a good idea, for the Republic, that we concede the point that philosophers are best fit to lead Plato's Just society, given their reasoning ability and knowledge of the forms. What, then, would we say about having a career in academic philosophy?

Clearly, 21st century society in the USA is quite different from that of Ancient Greece. Along with political, economic and technical changes, the role of the philosopher has been altered over the past 2500 years. With the division of labor and the specialization of the university, philosophy is an exercise conducted in armchairs and classrooms.

Assuming that in order to "be a philosopher" one must be an academic philosopher, are contemporary philosophers living up to their responsibility to go "back into the cave," or does the institution of the university make it impossible to fulfill this duty? If philosophers are concerned with the Good life and Just society, is it enough to teach college and graduate students? Should philosophers be more engaged in public life?

Moreover, as college graduates contemplating our futures, how should we weigh the idea of pursuing a PhD in philosophy versus, say, one in public policy, or against going into the workforce for a worthy non-profit?

I'm not sure of my opinion on these questions, but I do believe that being an academic philosopher is not enough, if one values things such as a Good life and Just society. It seems to me that academic philosophers need to go further into the cave, perhaps meaning they begin teaching younger students or those who can't afford top-flight educations, or that they engage in more practical activities in which their superior powers of reasoning could be of great public benefit.

What do you guys think?

--Alex

Inaugural Post

Hooray, we have a blog!

That is, we will have a blog, as soon as y'all start posting! I've collected some Exemplary Philosophy Blog Posts to inspire you. Here are some kinds of things you can write (and read) here:

Substantive philosophy stuff:

• "I'm reading this great article": e.g. Is Morality More Like Math or Art? @ Thoughts Arguments and Rants; Lewis Carroll's critique of Disjunctivism @ There is Some Truth in That
• "I went to this great lecture": e.g. Canon and Fanon @ Go Grue (woot, Ian Flora '05!)

Institutionalized-philosophy stuff:

• Philosophy and life: e.g. Ethicists Steal More Books? @ The Splintered Mind
• Prejudice & exclusion in philosophy: e.g. You're Like School in the Summertime — No Class @ Feminist Philosophers. (Also, see their other minorities-in-philosophy posts.)
• Professional academia stuff: e.g. APA Anti-Discrimination Policy Violators @ Leiter Reports

Posts that Solicit Comments:

• Opinion poll: e.g. Best Philosophical Writers @ Unideal Observers
• Soliciting Intuitions: e.g. Intutions as Evidence? @ There Is Some Truth in That; Intuitions about Property @ Unideal Observers
• Soliciting recommendations: e.g. African Phil of Religion @ Prosblogion, or Summer Reading @ Atoms Arranged Meaningwise
• Help with a text: e.g. Problem with Zarathustra @ Florida Student Philosophy Blog
• X-and-philosophy: e.g. Indiana Jones @ Talking Philosophy
• Riddles: e.g. The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever @ UCSB

Anything else we'd want to read:

• Real Life News: e.g. Geneva & Paris @ Phlox; Congratulations @ Unideal Observers
• Videos: e.g. Quine @ Knowledge and Experience; Albert v. Carroll on Phil of Time @ Leiter Reports
• Stories: e.g. Greco Experiences the Principle of Charity at Work @ Certain Doubts; Daughter's Theory of Moral Desert @ Garden of Forking Paths
• Jokes: e.g., this one @ Atoms Arranged Meaningwise:

An analytic philosopher and a continental philosopher walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “wadda ya havin?” The continental philosopher replies, “I will require an authentic, discursively enjoined, post-structuralist, disimmediated thing-in-itself.”

The bartender shakes his head and says, “I don’t get what you want.” The continental philosopher turns his nose up in the air and storms out of the bar. The bartender looks apologetically to the analytic philosopher and says, “I really couldn’t understand him.”

“Oh, I know!” replies the analytic philosopher. “As for me, I’ll have the same, without the adjectives.”

(This pep talk was brought to you by Swacrates, Our Founder, and by the "z" in Nietzsche, not pictured here.)

Pre-Inaugural Post