The difference between philosophy in the US and Europe.

[Jacksprat]

Public discourse, policy-making, and deep institutional structure formation are much more disassociated from philosophical and humanities discourse in the United States than in Europe. Almost anywhere in Europe — in Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia, you name it — philosophy is more deeply integrated into nitty-gritty institutional structures: you’re much more likely to meet a bureaucrat from a German ministry who wants you to talk as a philosopher than in Washington, DC. This is a very serious cultural difference.

Sense and Nonsense in California: A Conversation with Markus Gabriel | Los Angeles Review of Books

Markus Gabriel speaks to Andrea Capra about his philosophy of a New Enlightenment.

lareviewofbooks.org

Why a lot of Americans don't know what philosophy is.

 

[Jacksprat]

"It appears to me that the United States had a period of flirtation with philosophers around the 1960s and ’70s, when intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and Noam Chomsky became public figures in a very strong sense and deeply influenced the New Left. Today philosophy seems to be more impactful on the right. Many people would consider Peter Thiel, who studied at Stanford with René Girard and whose power in the GOP is ever-growing, to be a cryptophilosopher."

 

[Jacksprat]

"It appears to me that the United States had a period of flirtation with philosophers around the 1960s and ’70s, when intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and Noam Chomsky became public figures in a very strong sense and deeply influenced the New Left. Today philosophy seems to be more impactful on the right. Many people would consider Peter Thiel, who studied at Stanford with René Girard and whose power in the GOP is ever-growing, to be a cryptophilosopher."

 

[Schism]

Why a lot of Americans don't know what philosophy is.

The left worship these people like gods. They'll do anything they say.

 

[Jacksprat]

The left worship these people like gods. They'll do anything they say.

Who is the left worshipping exactly?

 

[dmpi]

I believe it has to do with employment. In Europe having a philosophy degree (along with some good family connections) will guarantee employment and a good position in its socialist goverment. It just doesn't work like that in America. The private sector is larger than the public sector. They generally favor technical and analytical skills.

 

[Sweden]

Public discourse, policy-making, and deep institutional structure formation are much more disassociated from philosophical and humanities discourse in the United States than in Europe. Almost anywhere in Europe — in Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia, you name it — philosophy is more deeply integrated into nitty-gritty institutional structures: you’re much more likely to meet a bureaucrat from a German ministry who wants you to talk as a philosopher than in Washington, DC. This is a very serious cultural difference.

Sense and Nonsense in California: A Conversation with Markus Gabriel | Los Angeles Review of Books

Markus Gabriel speaks to Andrea Capra about his philosophy of a New Enlightenment.

lareviewofbooks.org

Why a lot of Americans don't know what philosophy is.

Neither do philosophers. Each has his own definition. 'Philosophy' is subject to vogue and fashion as star performers come and go as cliques wax and wane. If all philosophy faculties in all universities had closed one hundred years ago the world today would be much the same. Rather better, in fact, as staff and students found something useful with which to occupy themselves.

 

[Jacksprat]

Neither do philosophers. Each has his own definition. 'Philosophy' is subject to vogue and fashion as star performers come and go as cliques wax and wane. If all philosophy faculties in all universities had closed one hundred years ago the world today would be much the same. Rather better, in fact, as staff and students found something useful with which to occupy themselves.

You hate philosophy. Fascinating.

 

[Jacksprat]

The concept of free will doesn’t enter philosophical discourse until Roman times, starting with Epictetus or St. Augustine, depending on whom you ask and what your criteria are. And philosophers don’t start talking about consciousness until the early modern period.

Were there conscious beings who may or may not have had free will all along and Plato and Aristotle just failed to remark upon this? I think the answer is complicated. It’s obviously not the case that Plato, Aristotle, and co. weren’t conscious. But it’s worth asking why nothing quite like the concept of consciousness featured in the philosophical discourse until fairly recently.

Why the History of Philosophy Matters to Philosophy (guest post) | Daily Nous

“Studying the history of philosophy can help us see ourselves from the outside and that can help us inhabit philosophy from the inside.” In the following guest post, David Egan, prompted by our discussion last month of Hanno Sauer‘s article, “The End of History“, takes issue with the picture of...

dailynous.com