Philosophy 101
The academic world’s view on philosophy is outdated and prevents change.
A lot of people have the misfortune of getting a degree in philosophy. Employers don’t really care about philosophy and often the academic situation to this is simple, get more training in philosophy until you can teach philosophy.
This has created a huge flaw in the discipline. First off, getting a philosophy teaching position is really hard with all the people with PhDs fighting for them and the lack of desire to take an unpractical philosophy class reduces the demand for philosophy teachers. Second, the overflow of people with masters and doctorates makes the guys with a bachelor’s even more worthless. Philosophy needs to redirect their focus from ancient thinkers to the modern world, we must find out how philosophy can be applied to the modern world. In the old days, philosophy constantly looked at practical purposes. Sun Tzu looked at war, Musashi looked at combat, Rousseau looked at childcare. Today, philosophy in the modern sense has become a cheap means to apply modern culture to the ancients to make some money, ala “Pop Culture Reference and Philosophy” (The Simpsons and Philosophy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy, Seinfeld and Philosophy).
Occasionally someone writes something like, the “Art of War and Business,” but that’s just as bad as the pop culture books because it’s just a professor that relys on one text so much that the professor tries to transfer the text’s content to another topic, these professors still aren’t thinking for themselves. Worse yet, this is best idea any philosophy professor has come up with in regards to making money with philosophy! It’s absurd.
Why aren’t there any classes on the philosophy of getting a great job or the philosophy of independent wealth? Sure, these things may not have the grand scope of what happens after death, but it is a nice step to take on the way to death. What’s the point of having classes on logic and argument if you’ve never encouraged a student to think for themselves?
Simply put, the current academic field cannot do this. They’ve lost touch with the meaning of philosophy, it’s become not only their source of income but meaning as well. To look at it otherwise subjects the professors themselves to the eye of “philosophy.” These teachers have created a block against progress, because they fear what will happen if their entire world is challenged.
What is next for philosophy? The destruction of philosophy, of course. I’m just kidding, it’s totally going to stay the same until singularity. At which point, who the hell knows.
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