{"id":8485,"date":"2013-09-13T05:46:47","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T05:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/09\/13\/popular-misconception-about-philosophy\/"},"modified":"2013-09-13T05:46:47","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T05:46:47","slug":"popular-misconception-about-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/09\/13\/popular-misconception-about-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Conceptions and Misconceptions of Philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are a philosopher or a student of philosophy, how do you respond when someone asks what you do or study?  What sorts of misconceptions about philosophy and other disciplines have you encountered?  Combox open! <\/span><\/p>\n

1. When I was a graduate  student I would sometimes deflect the question by saying 'mathematics.'  But then one day I received the reply, "Why do we still need mathematicians?  We now have computers to do their work."  The fellow apparently thought that mathematicians spend their time doing computations sitting under green eyeshades, with paper and pencil . . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

2. When I told an art historian at Cleveland State what I taught, he naively asked, "What's philosophy?"  The man had no idea.  Here was an intelligent man in the humanities<\/em> who had no clue, no clue at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.  An R. N. in one of my classes was very surprised to hear that there are philosophy journals.  "There are journals<\/em> of this stuff?"  <\/span><\/p>\n

4. At a rest stop off an interstate, some guy asked me what I do.  "I teach philosophy."  Whereupon the gent regaled me about the interesting philosophy they have up in Nova Scotia.<\/span><\/p>\n

5.  On a flight to Hawaii, I was reading from a copy of The Journal of Philosophy<\/em> when the  lady next to me expressed astonishment that philosophy is a technical subject and that she couldn't make head nor tail of the article I was reading.   But at least she wasn't offended<\/em> that it is a technical subject as some people are.  The latter expect it to be comprehensible without any expenditure of effort, an expectation they do not have of physics, say.  A curious double standard.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. When an engineering professor of mine learned that I was abandoning engineering for philosophy, he said, "Whaddya gonna do when you graduate, philosophize?"  <\/span><\/p>\n

7.  A relative asked me what I was working on. "At the moment I am reviewing so-and-so's book."  "Are you getting paid for that?"  The disgusting but all-too-common assumption is that only what one is paid to do is really worth doing.  This assumption is discussed in Work, Money, Living, and Livelihood<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

8.  And then there's the opposite sort of response, "You actually get paid<\/em> to teach that stuff?" The assumption this time is that philosophy is not worth being paid to do.  Curious.  If you are not paid, then you are wasting your time, and if you are paid, then you are still wasting your time — and others' time and money to boot.<\/span><\/p>\n

9.  No one asks the dentist whether he is still cleaning teeth or the carpenter whether he is still pounding nails.  But it is not uncommon for a philosopher to be asked, "Are you still<\/em> teaching philosophy?"<\/span><\/p>\n

10. When my mother died, a great aunt of mine paid us a visit.  She asked what  I did.  "I teach philosophy."  "That must make you very serene."  The old lady was not wrong about what philosophy ought to be.  She was simply uninformed about what it actually is for most of its practitioners.<\/span><\/p>\n

11.  Philosophy courses, even if well-taught, don't seem to do much to ward of misconceptions.  An Art Educator, with a doctorate in the field, thought philosophy a lot of rubbish because of her intro course in which she learned that some dead white guy said that everything is water, another that it is all fire, a third air . . . .  <\/span><\/p>\n

12.  I overhead two girls talking about a colleague's logic class.  "How do you like Dr. Richards' logic class?"  "It's all a bunch of word games."<\/span><\/p>\n

13.  Philosophers are in part to blame for the PR problems of the discipline.  Nationally syndicated talk show host Dennis Prager's low opinion of philosophy traces back to his freshman year.  He began an intro course but dropped it when the professor opened by saying that they would be discussing whether or not people exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you are a philosopher or a student of philosophy, how do you respond when someone asks what you do or study?  What sorts of misconceptions about philosophy and other disciplines have you encountered?  Combox open! 1. When I was a graduate  student I would sometimes deflect the question by saying 'mathematics.'  But then one … Continue reading “Popular Conceptions and Misconceptions of Philosophy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metaphilosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}