Philosophy Inside Out

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter begins with a fable, depicting a culture in which the exercises through which professional musicians are trained are given pride of place through competitive events, while the classics of the repertoire are left to “the second-raters.” The fable serves as background to a review of the contemporary state of Anglophone philosophy. What is taken as “core philosophy” is often of negligible value, while supposedly peripheral work in “applied philosophy” answers to genuine cultural needs. Philosophers have, for example, contributed to improved understandings of race and gender, helped to develop methods of causal analysis, illuminated central economic concepts, and developed important themes from literary works. Philosophy would be healthier if it were turned inside out.