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Public Philosophy: Ready, Set, Publish · Sep 20, 02:20 PM
The public philosopher thinks long and hard about a problem, clearly defines the issue then makes their ideas available to a wide audience in hopes that the knowledge provided might somehow create palpable results. A philosopher contemplates inward and outward, questioning their own thoughts critically along with ideas and beliefs of others. Not all philosophers make their ideas accessible to the young and old, rich and poor: this is the role of the public philosophers. The novice philosopher believes acceptance by the academic world and indeed by the mob itself is a true measure of an idea’s success. As this paper shows, academic credentials mean very little in the trade of genuine contemplation while carrying a lot of weight in the game of academic philosophy.
Professional Philosophers
The professional philosopher, opting for the dedicated life of contemplation, pays a tremendous personal price. In 1997 Eric Hoffman, executive director of the American Philosophical Association, reported that more than 1,000 people with Ph.D’s in philosophy applied for the 448 openings listed in the newsletter called “Jobs for Philosophers.” Many of those jobs weren’t even directly teaching philosophy, others only temporary or highly specified jobs. Yet according to a study conducted in 1999 by the University of Texas, as the number of philosophy graduates increases, the indirect job fields available for philosophy majors such as programming, researching, and political science increases too.
The trade of philosophy doesn’t necessary provide a good living, and in the case public philosophers, often provides the opposite. Karl Marx, the father of communism, developed his philosophy and infamy after being blackballed from the intellectual German community for agitating his Russian neighbors. Over the next decade he lived with his wife and children in Paris under absolute poverty. Half of Marx’s children died of sickness and starvation while he fought admirably to advocate his theory. Because Marx’s ideas survived beyond academic pursuit and indeed are implemented to fight a social injustice, the bourgeoisie, he remains the most influential public philosopher in history.
Teaching Philosophy
The only true philosophy profession is teaching philosophy, and with more than 4,000 students earning bachelor’s degrees in America every year and 1,000 of those moving on to graduate school to pursue a career in philosophy, university dollars are tight. The average annual salary for a secondary school teacher, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics is currently $47,000. The University philosophy professor averages $57,000. That’s a mere ten thousand dollars more per year than the secondary school teacher, and the philosophy teacher will spend on average twice as much on education.
The current North American economy requires the philosopher to become highly specialized, especially as an undergraduate. Any B.M.S. holding philosophy student, regardless of the particular branch of philosophy in which she specializes, makes a valuable addition to special interest groups or political parties. Being well trained in deductive argument, symbolic logic, and empirical observation the philosophy major finds money in places they originally chose philosophy to avoid. According to a study in 1998 by the University of Texas in which actual career professionals participated, if you met someone on the street whose professional title read: foreign service officer, historian, intelligence officer, lab researcher, lobbyist organizer, legislative aide, or even lawyer, there’s a very good chance their original pursuit was philosophy. Those lucky enough to graduate and pursue a career in teaching might even become disenfranchised by the lack of money involved, flip-flopping on their degree to reflect a more lucrative enterprise.
Certainly an education from an accredited university empowers the philosopher by association. But in true philosophy, as in the practical sciences, power by appeal to authority amounts to little or nothing. “Brilliant” philosophers with valid arguments are often discredited with the single stroke of a pen. Herbert Spencer, a revered evolutionary philosopher, received no formal education. A railroad engineer by trade, Spencer had no use for lectures, books or formal arguments. Yet his clarity of thought was unparalleled, his conclusions general and unscholarly. After reading half of an old forgotten book on ethics by Jonathan Dymond, Spencer wrote his first book, Social Statics, based mostly on matter-of-fact knowledge gathered from periodicals and general observations he’d “picked up.” To date, no greater contributor to sociology has lived.
Published Philosophers
Automatic publishing never happens to philosophers anymore. Many philosophy students shortly after enrolling in graduate school, begin pitching, submitting and self-publishing their work, often at outrageous personal expense. Becoming well known and revered in the academic community greatly increases the chances of becoming published by an acclaimed university press, not the other way around. At the M.B. level, a working thesis can take weeks or years to complete. Dissertation however, requires several years of intense research and hundreds of pages of documentation. During this time graduate philosophy students will determine their public career by the intense honing of writing and presentation skills, networking and lunching with individuals who are already well established in their field, and relentlessly adding to their academic credentials. Without playing this game, even the most brilliant mind has little chance of being published by a University press. The public philosopher must know and play the game or look for less lucrative avenues to success.
1. Pitching to University Publishers
A non-fiction book idea pitch to a University publisher is commonly known as a Prospectus, and differs from a proposal to a commercial publisher. Among these differences, the most obvious being that the University has nowhere the kind of money to work with that the common New York publishing house does, which typically reflects the advance afforded to the author. While the initial advance is smaller, overall print commitment tends to be much longer than the standard publishing house, which means greater royalties over time to the author. Acquisition editors, agents working for the university publisher in search of prospective writers, attend academic conferences across the country hoping to uncover the most revered experts in their University market. These editors usually “summon” the prospective authors to propose a book, and very rarely consider unsolicited submissions.
Before a prospectus is even considered, the editor takes a long, hard look at the author’s academic credentials. If conflicts of interest arise which may embarrass or discredit the University in question based on the authors academic, social and personal history, the editor routinely turns down the prospectus without ever seeing the actual work. If the author passes this initial stage of inquiry, the manuscript is passed on to referees, other well-known professors and experts, for a detailed review of the work. This process usually takes at least six months, during which the author agrees to an exclusive, an agreement not to make a deal with any other publisher. If the referees approve the manuscript, the prospectus is accepted with noted recommendations and revisions, then a contract is signed. If the referees turn down the proposal, the author is sent on their way without any compensation. Editors and agents will rarely ever look twice at a manuscript that has already been turned down by a publishing house, which means the author gets one shot only.
2. Submitting to Journals
Academic journals have lost much of their original prestige since the advent of e-books and other digital information. From a reader’s perspective: so many choices of reading and so many different resource choices exist that the validity of content is often undetermined. A journal reader is typically well educated and familiar with the subject matter, searching for new and unique interpretations, perspectives, techniques and information about a subject in which she is well versed. Readers will often cite sources from journals in their own research, in this way a journal writer becomes popular in their field by simply making their work public. From a writer’s perspective: if that journal has little or no prestige in the academic community, publishing can be unproductive and/or detrimental. When a professor sees an authors name next to an unknown or poorly regarded journal cited on an essay, chances are they wont even remember it.
Prestigious electronic journals are often linked to prestigious websites, making them accessible to a wider audience than un-credited journals. Out of every 1,000 people that access the journal article, an average dozen will use the author’s name in a citation. Out of those twelve that do pass on the author’s name, only one will actually remember it long enough to pass it on again. Therefore an academic journal found on the web may produce very little for the author, unless…
a)the journal is accessed a great number of times by a wide audience of readers or
b)the journal is read by a few, elite and influential members of the academic community.
Very few journals, even the most prestigious, will pay an author for a submission. In fact the author is often required to spend hundreds of dollars out of their own pocket if the work is considered for publication. If illustrations are required, such as in the case of medical or technical scientific journals, the author could easily pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket just to see their work in print. These journals have strict submission guidelines, look long and hard at academic credentials and work under the strictest budget constraints imaginable. The only true payoff for journal submission in the case of philosophy students comes when any agent or editor desires to see their credentials. The acceptance of the author by the journal along with the journal’s prestige and readability among the academic community can go a long way with any type of employer.
3. Self-Publishing
The least desirable, yet not the least admirable method of reaching the public and acquiring attention from the academic world is do-it-yourself publishing. Ben Franklin, a revered American patriot and philosopher published several books from a basement printing press before being thrust into politics during the American revolution. Christopher Paolini, a 19 year old from Montana, self-published a book geared towards young adults called Eragon, then spent most of the year 2002 making public appearances at elementary schools and pitching his novel. Shortly afterwards his success reached the ears of editors at Alfred A. Knopf, a New York big time publishing house, which signed him on for a half a million dollars. The philosophy student is unlikely to meet with financial success from a self-published book, the reward comes in the form of a quick career boost and emotional reward.
A successful independent philosophy writer might even have enough marketability to attract attention directly from acquisition editors. First they need to sell the work in question, which can be extremely difficult considering the audience and nature of the subject. Philosophers, philosophy students and public philosophers are frugal, and unlikely to go out of their way to snatch non-required reading unless the topic is fresh, newsworthy and ground breaking. For this reason, many philosophy writers resort to artistic non-fiction or symbolic fiction to provide a seemingly unique perspective on an old subject. Regardless of the type of spin put on the manuscript, publishers will want to see detailed sales records before making an offer. The flexibility on behalf of the editor will greatly depend on the author’s previous sales, especially in the case of university presses.
E-books are electronic copies of an author’s work. They’re cheap to purchase, even cheaper to produce, providing the poor philosophy student yet another means of attention grabbing while making their work more accessible. Similar to traditional self-publishing, e-publishing guarantees nothing without the author’s ability to market and sell the product. Again, philosophers are frugal, crushing any opportunity for massive profit, however being the most inexpensive method of production, e-book publishing remains the most cost-effective avenue to success for public philosophers willing to sell relentlessly from car trunks and appear at churches and elementary schools for publicity.
Successful self-publishing and easy marketability tends to increase the weight of a prospectus even more than the validity of the ideas themselves, sadly. Editors-in-chief at all levels of academia are subject to upper level management, who understand very little about publishing, even less about public philosophy. According to the Directory of American Philosophers more than 400 philosophy departments disappeared from colleges in the U.S. between 1992 and 1996. Schools offering a major in the subject slipped from 683 to 660 and those offering even scattered courses fell from 947 to 606. Money doesn’t grow on trees, it’s no surprise then that if a self-published philosopher meets with monetary success, acquisition editors are anxious to see them repeat the stunt. A self published book with even the mildest market success increases the chances of the author to be accepted by a reputable academic journal, which can lead to prestigious invitations to speak at conferences, and eventually to attention of acquisition editors.
Playing the Game
Choosing a field of specialization marks the beginning a long philosophical journey. Academic philosophy can be broken down into four major categories: logic and philosophy of language, ontology and metaphysics, epistemology and methodology, and ethics. (See chart)
Philosophy programs are extremely different depending on the university. One school might employ several graduate professors dedicated to the discipline of aesthetics, which will be of little benefit to a student pursuing a career in the science philosophies, the other school may not have a philosophy program available at all. Students who are serious about pursuing a career in philosophy have the power to choose from a large number of undergraduate schools, graduate schools however may not be so welcoming. Students who study the players already involved in the game, knowing the universities’ strengths and weaknesses, knowing everything there is to know about professor such and such who resides at such and such university, have a chance at a direct career in philosophy. Those who refuse to do all these things will almost certainly never set foot in a graduate school, along with their potentially influential ideas that will never become as accessible to the public as the student who does.
Although the game may seem unjust, those philosophers who lose at it may console in the fact that the winner receives very little reward for their tireless academic pursuits. Even the philosopher who gets published, widely recognized and promoted into a secure teaching position, will eventually come to know the same injustices as the loser. Their ability to clarify and actively oppose injustice makes one a public philosopher, not writing for an audience which nods it’s head in approval. The ultimate reward, the highest acclaim an honorable philosopher can achieve, is effectively advocating an idea which opposes an injustice.
Works Cited
1.Durant, W. (1954). The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers. New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books Inc.
2.Soccio, D. (2004). Archetypes of Wisdom. Belmont, CA. Thompson Learning Inc.
3.Bykofsky, S. & Sander, J.B. (2003). The Complete Idiot’s Guide Getting Published. New York, N.Y.: Alpha Books.
4.James, W. (1948). Essays in Pragmatism. New York: Hafner Publishing Company.
5.Arouet, F.M. (1977). The Portable Voltaire. New York, New York: Penguin Books
6.Steinhart, Eric (1998) How Philosophy Pays Off Retrieved September 13th 2005 from the world wide web: http://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/philosophy/payoff.htm
7.Cooper, Carol Marie (1997) The New York Times On the Web: Philosophers Find the Degree Pays Off in Life And in Work. Retrieved September 13th 2005 from the world-wide web: http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/philosophy/philpays.html
8.Map of the Major Branches of Philosophy (2005) Retrieved September 10th, 2005 from the world wide web: http://www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk/study_html/vade_mecum/sections/section1/branches.htm
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