darklayde:

At the beginning of this lecture recording there is a discussion between the lecturer and one of the tutors about their respective hangovers and watching Game of Thrones and eating greasy food to get over them. 

places i need to teach

"The people who really care for science and progress and doing something practical for humanity typically have a deep love for arts, letters, culture, the past. They don’t just rant, ala McArdle, about how useless their English degree was."

I’m fed up with Megan McArdle’s condescending rants about the academy, even though the picture she paints has a lot of truth

"We’re obsessed with sports, finance, guns, class warfare, ideological purity. This is a pretty crappy environment right now: it’s hard to be thoughtful in any way. Last I checked, we Americans can be a lot better than this. What’s all this wealth and power for if we can’t think, or be even remotely just?"

In Defense of the Liberal Arts

Colin McGinn: “…it is really quite clear that academic philosophy is a science.” →

"None of this is to say “philosophy of” subfields should be done away with. It’s more that I see the specialization as a willful ignorance of the power of philosophy to open minds."

Yosa Buson’s “A small shop opening” and a rant against “philosophy of X” subfields

"Plato’s Republic was notorious in this regard. I tried reading it several times over a number of years. Each time I tried, I got the feeling that the book read “What is justice? Yes."

The State of Philosophy on the Internet

"Literally, most academics are sophists. Xenophon’s Socrates repeatedly calls attention to the fact that he doesn’t charge for teaching because he wants to be free to work with whomever he wants to."

Colin McGinn: “…it is really quite clear that academic philosophy is a science.”

"In some ways, it was natural for the university to become a type of sports franchise. I think of the pettiness of various professors, administrators and students I’ve encountered at a number of schools – schools that may not have Division I teams – and can’t help but wonder what end that spirit of “one-upsmanship” serves."

The fight over college athletics is really a fight over what the University means

"My feeling about all this: the business of academia has conspired with our populist, commercial tendencies to keep ideas which changed the world away from the people who most need the world to change."

The Accessibility of Philosophy

Re: “So You Want To Get a PhD in the Humanities” →

I don’t like linking to videos, but this one is right on the money. If anyone can find a transcript, please paste it in the comments:

So you want to get a PhD in the humanities

The main point of…