Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A bed of laurels

A number of well-known philosophers have reached a stage in their careers where most of the articles they write are invited and appear in anthologies, in book symposia, or in invitation-only venues like Philosophical Perspectives. I've been appalled by the quality of several pieces of this sort that I've read recently. (Of course there are also lots of very good invited pieces out there--I'll dispense with such caveats in what follows, but please do mentally insert them wherever you see fit.) The authors seemed uninterested in offering a careful and comprehensive defense of their views. They do offer some arguments, of course, but these arguments invite obvious objections that they don't bother addressing. They often seem much more intent on making jokes than on producing a lasting, high-quality piece of philosophy. No junior philosopher submitting a piece to a refereed journal would dare to offer such a casual, even flippant defense of his or her views. A lot of these pieces are also replete with typos. Part of the problem here is that academic publishers now outsource their copy-editing to India or Singapore, where not much in the way of copy-editing gets done as far as I can tell, but again, philosophers who are not tenured and famous do their best to correct their spelling and grammar before sending off their work. Maybe I'm overly prickly, but I actually feel insulted having wasted my time reading something that was clearly not the writer's best work, and that reflects such an arrogant, complacent attitude.

I'd say if you want to read really good work, seek out articles by unknowns writing in very selective journals, and avoid the invited pieces.

7 comments:

John S. Wilkins said...

It is also possible that people in philosophy, asin physics, mathematics and other hard subjects, do their best work in their 20s and maybe 30s and by the time they get invited to symposia and asked to contribute to these publications, they are simply no longer at their peak.

I say this as someone in their 50s...

Anonymous said...

There is some true to this, and where there is, it's sad. That's why I've chosen to stop reading altogether, and to take a stand against half-assed writings by well-known philosophers. I only watch TV now, and certainly nothing with subtitles. What an appalling state the world has come to.

Anonymous said...

Kind of tangential, but Wilkins is just wrong (he may be pleased to learn). It's a common myth that physicists and mathematicians peak early in their careers, but it simply isn't true (there are good studies of this sort of thing in sociology).

Anyway, I'm not sure which philosophers we're talking about here. I can think of one or two who seem to be resting on their laurels -- maybe.

Anonymous said...

Hey this is a gossip forum; let's call out the slacker invitees by name!

Anonymous said...

I don't understand the appeal to the fact that this is a "gossip blog" as a kind of justification for calling people out by name. That it's a gossip blog does not sanction gossiping ("What do you mean I shouldn't gossip: it's a gossip blog!") since there's really no good justification for having a genuine gossip blog in the first place (I would add that this blog, which I enjoy, is not really a gossip blog since there's little or no gossip. Note that moderator did not mention any names in the initial post).

Gossip about particular individuals, especially in a public forum where people can anonymously post, is vicious, that's all there is to it. That this is a gossip blog provides no justificatory cover.

Anonymous said...

Many invited contributions are poor, and senior philosophers often get invited just to boost the profile (and thus the publishability) of the volume.

I wish such senior philosophers cared more about the quality of the works they leave behind, rather than quantity of them. One truly great article will do much more for their legacy than a 100 throw-away articles.

I see Velleman as someone who doesn't take his invited contributions for granted. That guy just doesn't quit.

Anonymous said...

Michael Ruse.