Apropos Philosophy Moving House

Believe me you, I am aware! I’m currently taking a non-fiction writing class to see if I can still be schooled to write differently. This is part of the great unlearning those of us trained academically must do. But this also raises an interesting question for me…

Philosophy is, in large part, the form that it takes. As philosophy moves house, is dispossessed of its current form in the academic, exegetical essay, its meaning and how it signifies, its significance, will also be reworked.

That is a part of the work of #publicphilosophy, I think. Packing up and moving the operation, re-learning what philosophy can do when given a different form. (Remember Nietzsche’s aphorisms? ) Perhaps it will be some form in the literary non-fiction genre… at least that is where I’m starting.

As philosophy morphs, academic philosophers will complain about it, no doubt. (They already have!) They have long had sole custody of the tradition, and now they also want to steward philosophy’s move out of academia. In my opinion, they have a supportive role to play only.

I think academic philosophers need to be mindful of their role outside of academia, so they don’t get in the way of what I think is inevitable change. If they truly want to be in the public realm, then come out and do the work of unlearning. Otherwise, stay in your lane!

Now I feel bad to say this — I seem to have a chip on my shoulder about academic philosophers. So maybe I’m wrong. We need you too.

Oh gosh, this tweet storm should be a blog post.