The Rise And Fall of Philosophers

Now as the title is very broad I'm going to focus on Western philosophy. I understand that Eastern philosophy also has its own things to say, and I intend to learn about it eventually. What I'm about to say I'm sure many of you are aware of but I am going to reiterate it for our newer friends. I am a philosophy professor with 8 years of experience. I have done my fair share of teaching different classes, grading papers and exams, and publishing papers for other intellectuals to read. What I've come to notice is that philosophy is not quite as popular as other sciences. The trends also change over time and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Many professors over the years have agreed with me on the following: A long time ago the majority of the students were doing classical philosophy. This was back when the basics of philosophy as a subject were still being figured out. A lot of the focus was on Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. It was a time when philosophers got as close as they could to a world view. Then came along philosophers like Kant, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, and others who wrote multiple tomes on their thoughts. Over time one could see an evident shift towards modern philosophy. Now the focus was on thinkers like Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Over the past 200 years, trends have shifted to philosophers like Nietzsche, Husserl, Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, and Butler. There's less interest in philosophers from previous periods. What I feel is happening is that the students are more interested in the thinkers of the modern world and are less interested in thinkers from our past. Now that's not to say that there is no interest whatsoever in ancient or classical philosophers. I am not judging whether this is good or bad. I am simply stating an observation. What are your thoughts on this?

The Rise And Fall of Philosophers

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