Participatory Universe on PEL

On the Partially Examined Life they are talking about a Scientific American article which basically discuses metaphysics. This stood out to me because my whole philosophical position can be described as an exploration of the concept of what Wheeler calls the "participatory universe". I just call it "reality". The discussion is a mixed bag, but, as usual, Mark and Wes have fine things to say.

IBM Builds Jeopardy Playing Supercomputer

IBM spent upwards of 20 million dollars developing Watson, a question answering supercomputer that was able to compete and win on Jeopardy. This technology will eventually be put to use making medical diagnoses for those Americans that have health insurance. Plans are also in the works for building a special robot that will swiftly end the miserable lives of Americans who lack health insurance.

Academia vs the Independent Scholar: Advice to Undergraduate Philosophy Majors

Anyone who is familiar with the current situation of philosophy in America knows that there is dissatisfaction all around. On the academic side, the "market" is terrible. Undergrads complain of being unable to get into a grad program, grad students complain of being unable to get a job, professors complain of meager wages and being unable to get a "tenure track" position, etc. (A good place to hear them voiced is on Leiter Reports). Meanwhile, the public at large in America remains largely ignorant of philosophy. How can it be that there are more philosophers than ever (employed and unemployed), and yet the public at large receives none of this philosophical knowledge and instruction? It is the result of another gripe that people have: the institution of the "peer reviewed journal". Professors seek publication in peer reviewed journals like so many mice in pursuit of cheese. Publication improves the resume, and the resume improves chances of tenure. But, the often cited problem with this is that, while everyone wants to be published in the journals, no one wants to read them. The evidence for this is simple: the journals don't make any money. The professors do not get paid for the articles, and, if a layman wanted to read one, he would find the journals themselves are ridiculously overpriced. In reality, the economic situation in academic philosophy is closer to Communism than Capitalism, with predictable results.

Of course, there are many who do work for universities and who do make a living off of philosophy, and, if you ask them, there's nothing whatsoever wrong with the system. But these are the minority. The majority end up dissatisfied.

The situation is probably not unique to philosophy. I am certain that similar results obtain in other parts of the humanities (English lit, for example), but I think that the situation is exacerbated in philosophy in particular because, unlike say English and History, philosophy is generally not taught in secondary schools. Year after year graduate programs produce new Ph.D.s, but there is no corresponding increase in market demand for them.

What is one to do? One possible solution to the dillemma for those who have sufficient training in philosophy is to become an independent scholar. The independent scholar circumvents the whole institution of academia and the headaches that go along with it, and the price paid is stricly economic. The independent scholar must earn his living by other means or simply already have those other means. His reward is independence. But, for him to be a philosopher he must publish. If he is not content to simply be a guy with a webpage, then he must enter the equally formidable book publishing market. Without credentials, publishing will prove difficult as well. But, with time and effort, one can accomplish a lot of things.

In general, my advice to undergraduate philosophy majors is not to rely on your major to sustain you economically after graduation. Get a second major in something that has a market such as a computer related field (computer science, IT, library science, etc.). This will improve your resume if you choose to go to grad school and will open up other possiblities in the job market for you if a life of academia does not work out for you. Even if you are a top student in a good program, you will most likely be glad that you did.

If you have already graduated with a philosophy major and you are not sure what to do, my heart definitely goes out to you, because I have been there before. If you are one of the many that is in a state of limbo, my advice to you is to attend a local technical school and to learn a skilled trade. These degrees can often be obtained within a year, and while the "white collar" job market is increasingly flooded with people, the "skilled trade" market is increasingly depleted and in need of workers. Perhaps the skilled trades do not have the "prestige" of being a "professor". But, you can take pride in the fact that you are doing something that people actually want and need. You will feel secure in your job and not subject to the whims of the economy. Something to think about, and best of luck to you.

Philosophy around the web

What is up with The Philosophers' Magazine these days? They've been spending their time talking about whether a "hot 26 year old" should or should not be jailed for having sex with a precocious 14 year old. I'm not really sure what the point of that is. There have been times when I have been a fan of The Philosophers' Magazine, but recently their bloggers have gone on holiday.

Mark Lint of the Partially Examined Life has been busy writing "Personal Philosophies" for people and he and the rest of PEL are having a forum about Schopenhauer.
It's good to see also that Philosophy Bites is starting their own sort of Leiteresque online philosophy forum called Philosophy Bites Daily. Theirs should be a good one!

Brian Leiter gave his annual list of philosophers who died, but refused to list anyone who was not an analytic philosopher on account of "they are just not philosophers!"

That was a joke.

Hindu philosophy: Brahman and atman

I was browsing in a bookstore today, and I picked up a copy of Eastern Religions. Like many in the West, I've never given much thought to Hinduism. It always seemed so foreign, so incomprensible, unapproachable. But, once I started reading this simple introduction, I began to see that the Hindu conception of religion is closely tied to philosophy in a way that Christianity is not. While philosophy and religion in the Hindu tradition seem to walk hand in hand, the relationship of philosophy and religion in the Christian tradition is a tulmultuous one at best. The Hindu philosophy/religion has a sophisticated philosophical vocabulary that rivals anything English has to offer.

I just want to discuss two words that come from the Hindu religion/philosophy: Brahman and atman. "Brahman" is "the Absolute". The word can also be translated as "God" or "the infinite", but these do not do it justice. Brahman is both transcendent and immanent. Like Aristotle's unmoved mover, it causes the reality of our experience, but also transcends it. If it is God, it is clearly not a personal God, but the God of Spinoza.

Brahman is always contrasted with "atman", "the soul." One can have differing opinions, but the Hindus ultimately believe that Brahman and atman are one and the same. Translated into the terminology of Western metaphysics, Spinoza takes the orthodox view. Leibniz takes a different view: the soul is individuated, and that is a fundamental aspect of reality. For Leibniz, Brahman and atman are not the same. Similar debates took place in the Hindu tradition and in the Western tradtion, although different terminology was used. It is a case of obvious paralellism that I find to be fascinating.

Cobain as artist

I was riding in a van today and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana came on the radio, and as I was listening to it in a detached way, I was taking the song apart in my mind to try to figure out what it was all about. What made it so influential? Was it just a coincidence, or was there rhyme or reason to it?

This got me to thinking, and so I did a little bit of research on Cobain. In reading about his life, a picture begins to form. He was born in an extremely small town in Washington, a town of 16,000 according to the 1990 census, about 2 hours outside of Seattle. His mother was a waitress and his father was an auto mechanic. They divorced when he was eight years old.

When you think of the huge, phenomenal, influence of "Smells like teen spirit", the song that (thankfully, in my opinion) caused hair metal to go away, you think that perhaps it was some sort of fluke. It's just a song by someone that somehow ignited a cultural phenomenon. But, when you look into it, you see that this is not the case at all. Cobain was an artist, plain and simple, from the time that he was a child, to the time that he comitted suicide at 27. His art expressed itself in numerous forms, and one site divides his work into the following categories: paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, film, sound collages, and these are all in addition to Cobain's music. Family members said that when he was young his room at home resembled an artist's studio. I would describe a lot of the imagery in his visual art as dark, morbid, gruesome, in some ways reminiscent of the art of Francis Bacon. Some of it reminds me of the artwork of the schizophrenic musician Daniel Johnston. In reading about his life and looking into it, I feel a facination mixed with a tinge of jealousy over Cobain's uncontestable coolness. But, one can also see in Cobain's artwork that he was a troubled soul, and, one would assume, in a great deal of emotional and psychological pain. I find similarities here between Bacon, Johnston, and Cobain.

One way of relating the three would be to view them each through the lens of spirituality. Bacon had atheistic tendencies and once likened the world to "a piece of dog shit." Johnston had fundamentalist Christian tendencies, and, in schizophrenic episodes, Christian religious ideology comes up again and again. After a brief stint as a Pentacostal, Cobain apparently turned his back on the Christian relgions, and was later drawn to Janism and Buddhism.

Another lens by which we may view the three is that of sexuality. Bacon: homosexual who claimed that he had been in love with his own father. Johnston: heterosexual who idealized his first love and as an adult did not seem to have very many active heterosexual relations. Cobain: heterosexual who once claimed to be "gay in spirit" and have the potential to be "bisexual".

The following are two paintings by Cobain.

Not all of Cobain's work is "dark". Cobain's strong, rebellious personality shines through in many pieces, such as the following.

This is telling, considering that Cobain's father was an auto mechanic.

This was done for a class in school. The teacher would not allow it to be put up, so he drew a picture of Ronald Regan instead. Cobain's cleverness shows through in both of these pieces.

What does all this tell me about "Smells like teen spirit"? A few interesting facts about the song. Cobain himself claimed that the song was an attempt to "rip off" the Pixies. A girlfriend of Kurt's had spraypainted on his wall: "Kurt smells like teen spirit", "teen spirit" refering to her brand of deoderant. But, in general, what I gather is that "Smells like teen spirit" is a work of art that is the product of a mature artist who had deliberately honed his craft over years in various media, an artist who was born in a shitty little town called Aberdeen, Washington. To pull it all together: the "smells like teen spirit" scrawled on his wall, the influence of the Pixies, the lyrics of the song, it becomes an undeniable fact: this is the work of an artist.