Abstract
Philosophy as an academic discipline has grown into something highly specific. This raises the question whether alternatives are available within the academic world itself – what I call the Lutheran view – and outside of academia (with or without support from the inside) – what I call the Calvinist view. Since I defend the thesis that such alternatives partially exist and as yet non-existent possibilities could in principle be realised, the main question thus becomes what prevents us from acting appropriately. In honour of Paul Smeyers, the fitting metaphor has to be the Wittgensteinian fly-bottle.
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Notes
- 1.
Exception is made for those philosophers who were associated with a famous philosopher’s archive, the most famous one in Flanders surely being the Husserl archive at KU Leuven (https://hiw.kuleuven.be/hua).
- 2.
To take myself as an example, when I applied for a grant for a PhD-scholarship in 1979, submitted to the National Science Research Foundation (NFWO: Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek), success rates were close to 50%. Today this has been reduced to about 20% in the best of cases. Having served as a member of the committee of the NWFO for philosophy for 10 years (1997–2006), I have been a direct witness of this gradual decline of funds.
- 3.
See, e.g., https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/, a Wiki website that present the Philosophy Family Tree (consulted on 27 December 2017).
- 4.
For an interesting discussion, including a presentation of a formal model, concerning the status of academic superstars, see Heesen (2017), who explicitly uses this expression.
- 5.
VLIR stands for Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad – Flemish Interuniversity Council.
- 6.
I will not elaborate on this issue here but it is rather strange if not difficult to comprehend that philosophy of science is almost completely absent. It creates the impression that scientific methodology is not a core issue of the scientific enterprise. But at the speed that science is being reshaped and restructured, driven by economic and political forces, does it not seem a worthwhile research question to ask to what extent science still delivers what it claims to deliver?
- 7.
Actually, one should not be too enthusiastic, as the term “movement” is perhaps too generous. In Rull (2016) it is claimed that (and I tend to agree): “Yet, the slow science movement is not an official organisation of scientists, nor a club or academy, and it is highly cryptic. Literature and information on slow science is surprisingly scarce” (ibid., p. 134).
- 8.
Consulted on 28 December 2017.
- 9.
The essay has also appeared in English translation, see Stengers (2017). But do note that it is not a faithful translation as a chapter has been added and some parts have been rewritten.
- 10.
This passage does not occur in the already mentioned English translation, hence I offer my own translation instead.
- 11.
This is to be understood in a very broad sense. In the case of a research project involving both the University of Antwerp and other organisations, called AIRbezen, the participating citizens had to cultivate for a fixed period a strawberry plant that captured the air pollution in its leaves. A more recent and similar example is the CurieuzeNeuzen project, once again set up with the aim to measure air pollution. See https://curieuzeneuzen.be/, consulted on 3 March 2018.
- 12.
See, e.g., the International Science Shop Network (http://www.livingknowledge.org/, consulted on 8 January 2018).
- 13.
See, e.g., Knobe and Nichols (2008) for an introduction and survey.
- 14.
I have added “classical” because in logic there are not that many intuitions that are shared by all logicians. In fact, I am tempted to believe that there are none. But the point here is that the classical logician will accept the point made as intuitively correct.
- 15.
In formal terms this means that from the formula q the formula p → q can be deduced, no matter what p says. In classical logic p → q can be the case even if there is no connection (of whatever sort) between p and q.
- 16.
There seems to be an echo here of the famous dictum, attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer (though a source is not immediately to be found), that at universities “Philosophieprofessoren” write “Professorenphilosophie”. If the echo is indeed reliable then the problems sketched here related to academic philosophy today seem hardly to have changed. In biblical terms one is tempted to say that “there is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes I:9, King James version).
- 17.
This description is based on De Cauter (2017), p. 11 (unfortunately the paper is in Dutch).
- 18.
This remark about the use of the term “Darwinism” is not without its importance. It suggests that we are still dealing with the original, partially formulated theory of Charles Darwin himself, as set forth in his Origin of Species (1859). Thereby one denies that whole development that followed, involving the so-called New Synthesis or, if you like, the joining of genetics and evolutionary theory and leading to present-day discussions about the importance of epigenetics and whether or not this can be seen as a Lamarckian reformulation, integrated in evolutionary theory. In short, a scientific theory is presented as solid and unchangeable in the very same way that a literal reading of the book Genesis is presented.
- 19.
This is, of course, a nod to Otto Neurath’s boat metaphor. It would be worthwhile to investigate how far this analogy can be continued before it breaks down.
- 20.
See Snow (1993). I deliberately use the word “reminiscent” because some care has to be taken in comparing Snow’s views with the present-day situation. It would be unwise to state that the discussion is still the same; in fact one can argue that an inversion took place. For Snow it was the superiority of the “literates” over the exact sciences and engineering that needed to be dealt with.
- 21.
I mention this alternative because it summarises a major part of my academic career as a teacher. Some of my courses on philosophy of science had as its major audience students from the exact sciences and engineering. Because of my double background in mathematics and philosophy, I was considered to be a “bridge” figure between their Faculties and my Faculty of Arts and Letters. This “short-cut” between Faculties made things possible that official relations, say Dean to Dean, could (or would) not.
- 22.
If A and B know each other, their distance is 1. If B knows C and A does not know C then the distance between A and C is 2 because one has to pass through B. It is thus the shortest distance to connect two people via “in-betweens”.
- 23.
For a full treatment (and more) see Watts (1999).
- 24.
From personal experience I can testify that he rejected an offer for an honorary doctorate at my university for precisely this reason.
- 25.
See http://upc.michelonfray.fr/ (consulted on 2 January 2018).
- 26.
The American National Security Agency is one of the top employers of mathematicians in the US. This has actually raised some concerns with mathematicians themselves, witness this exchange in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, to be found at http://www.ams.org/notices/201406/rnoti-p623.pdf (consulted on 3 January 2018), “Mathematicians Discuss the Snowden Revelations”.
- 27.
I am thinking here about all kinds of cultural associations that provide courses or lectures on any number of topics, including philosophy. For the situation in Flanders, Elcker-Ik, Vormingplus, Background Educations, Willemsfonds, Masereelfonds, … are perfect examples. As these organisations do not wish to “compete” with academia but rather want to be an interface between universities and “ordinary” citizens, I did not include them here.
- 28.
See http://alaindebotton.com/the-school-of-life/, consulted on 3 January 2018.
- 29.
It would take a separate paper to show the philosophical inspiration of van Eeden, linked to the Signific Movement and such intriguing philosophers as Victoria Lady Welby and mathematicians as Gerrit Mannoury. For some history and background, see Van Bendegem (2011).
- 30.
As must be clear, this is nothing but a new metaphor, Tractarian-inspired, that is being introduced here.
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Van Bendegem, J.P. (2018). Upon the Academic Philosopher Caught in the Fly-Bottle. In: Ramaekers, S., Hodgson, N. (eds) Past, Present, and Future Possibilities for Philosophy and History of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94253-7_9
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