Nothing New

Evidence that philosophy is always in at least a little trouble (though it does not necessarily support the Straussian view!):

"And when the fame of the visiting philosophers rose yet higher in the city, and their first speeches before the Senate were interpreted, at his own instance and request, by so conspicuous a man as Gaius Acilius, Cato determined, on some decent pretext or other, to rid and purge the city of them all. So he rose in the Senate and censured the magistrates for keeping in such long suspense an embassy composed of men who could easily secure anything they wished, so persuasive were they. "We ought," he said, "to make up our minds one way or another, and vote on what the embassy proposes, in order that these men may return to their schools and lecture to the sons of Greece, while the youth of Rome give ear to their laws and magistrates, as heretofore."

Plutarch, The Life of Cato the Elder 22:4-5 (Perrin's translation)

Decline, Demise, Death

In a recent article in the New York Review of Books, the latinist Mary Beard asks the question of whether the classics have a future. Her answer, a qualified "yes," depends on her understanding classics not simply as a monological communiqué from the past but as a dialogue in which we try to understand the present, as well. Beard writes that "the study of the classics is the study of what happens in the gap between antiquity and ourselves." Is this simply too hopeful given the hard realities faced even by top departments?

Perhaps a similar point can be made about philosophy. Certainly a narrative of decline is not limited to classics, especially given the (relatively) recent bad news from philosophy departments in the UK such as Middlesex and Northampton. Does the erosion of professional philosophy (and continental-heavy departments in particular) simply mean that we are connecting with the tradition in a new way? Or is philosophy always ignored or threatened? Are the philosophers an endangered species?

some links

Critchley’s New York Times Blog

Philosophy Jobs and More Philosophy Jobs

Talks at the New School

Calls for Papers

The Pragmatist Revival