NOTES ON THE DECISION TO QUIT ACADEMIA
Graduate school is a grueling process, sometimes appearing Sisyphean to those who are lucky enough to be offered a place in it. It must be in light of this, at least in part, that the choice to quit is often viewed as a personal failure: he was not strong enough, or studious enough, or industrious enough. We further connect this failure with the person's willpower, character, or passion: nobody who TRULY wants to be a professional philosopher would ALLOW himself to fail with respect to studiousness or industriousness, therefore a quitter is revealed to be a mere amateur. But, there is a point when one must reflect on the reasonableness of this attitude. It is my opinion that this point has not only been reached, but has been passed-by some time ago.
Philosophers are, in a sense, warriors, whose enemy is sophistry, subterfuge, and confusion. A warrior is a victim of fate if he continues to fight and struggle for a WORTHY CAUSE, while knowing that he will not succeed, and that the futile struggle will likely result in his demise. But a knight is a mere berserker and a fool if he fights a futile battle on the maxim that it is dishonorable to surrender, regardless of the cause. As graduate students, are we the former or the latter? Obviously from a prudential point of view we MUST regard ourselves as the former; the alternative, which we may call the "berserker mentality" involves a commitment to something false, yet requires that it be thought to be true in order for the berserker's death to be meaningful. Therefore the berserker is not a victim of fate, but of mythology and self-deception.
We all must fancy ourselves as victims of fate. But if it could be revealed that the cause were NOT worthy, then we must either surrender or be reduced to the berserker. My own departure from academia, in a single reason, is because I will not be a berserker. However, it has not yet been determined whether the cause truly is unworthy. Therefore, I present the following four categories of reasons in an effort to convince you:
1. Practical (pertaining to the possibility of the successfully achieving the end)
-Can't afford it (student loans, unhelpful universities, etc).
2. Personal (pertaining to what is sacrificed in successfully pursuing and achieving the end)
-prevents me from pursuing my other interests and commitments
-prevents me from being a good friend/family member
-mental health
3. Professional (pertaining to whether the end is in fact in accordance with my general conception of ends and ambitions)
-I don't want to teach students
-A /PhD/ is practically worthless for all purposes (and sometimes even counterpurposive) except for pursuing professorship
-Work/Life Balance
-A PhD is necessary yet not sufficient for an adequate job within academia
-The job market is governed by a caste system based on your PhD-granting institution (and student admissions
4. Philosophical (pertaining to a critique of the end itself)
-UNIVERSITY is evil
-Toxic academic culture
-ANALYTIC philosophy (worship of logic) is increasingly dissatisfying: "the sun must indeed have set for such small figures to cast such long shadows." Aristotle: trivia vs knowledge. Trivia can be justified true belief, but Knowledge requires a worthy subject matter. You can't have knowledge of esoteric scruples.
-Philosophy should be lived in addition to studied: cannot be a good person idly, or in disposition alone: cannot be a good person only in potential, must be a good person in actuality.
- Aristotle: A hermit cannot be a good person, for a hermit does not have any opportunity to EXERCISE his virtue. A good bell-maker cannot JUST have the necessary skills. He also must have access to the necessary resources, be in the right kind of employ, have the right inspirations, and a host of other background conditions must be filled. Similarly, to be a good philosopher, one cannot simply be skilled in philosophical argumentation and be familiar with the philosophical canons. One must also have the right kind of LIFE and be in the right CONDITIONS in order to be a good philosopher, and the right LIFE and CONDITIONS are prevented, or at least made extremely difficult, by the university and our society in general. Therefore, it is
-TOO MANY COOKS IN THE KITCHEN SPOIL THE SOUP (AND MAKE COOKING IMPOSSIBLE)
Concluding notes:
One must regard there being something GLORIOUS about the uncertain (and perhaps even futile) struggle towards success in philosophy qua profession (relative to the current historical conditions). But this prideful battle-cry is simply a desperate act of self-deception; surprisingly, it is easier to become a berserker than to admit that ones dreams are rendered foolish by historical circumstance. Thus, the GLORY narrative is a piece of mythology wielded as self-defense from the truth (and it goes without saying that to all those berserkers who fancy themselves victims of fate, there cannot be admitted EVEN ONE person who is justified in quitting, for that would call into question their own stubbornness). Plato, Aristotle, Kant, etc. would all agree that despite the nobility of the philosopher, there is nothing honorable or noble about the person who, like a foot-binder, pursues philosophy DESPITE that pursuit amounting to a serious MALFORMATION of life in general: poverty, over-specialization, subjecting oneself to dehumanizing working conditions, etc. (being a philosopher amounts to different things at different times in history. The vast majority of individuals with PhDs and publications in philosophy TODAY sadly are not philosophers). In contrast, it is honorable and courageous to recognize this, and to avoid becoming a berserker; there is nothing wrong with walking away from a bad situation. The best way to fully exercise what one has learned, and the best way to fully BE what one has BECOME is to accept that what happens in the university department is "philosophy" in name while nevertheless decreasingly philosophical in substance every day. Today, we must be philosophers while being normal people, rather than being "philosophers" and only normal people in what little spare time we have left.
