Philosophy dedisciplined

Robert Frodeman

pp. 1917-1936

in: Michael H. G. Hoffmann, Jan C. Schmidt, Nancy J. Nersessian (eds), Philosophy of and as interdisciplinarity, Synthese 190 (11), 2013.

Abstract

This essay offers a critique of disciplinary philosophy, the dominant form of academic philosophy in the United States and elsewhere across the twentieth century. It argues that disciplinary philosophy represents an aberration compared to the main tradition of two thousand years of Western philosophy. It describes the characteristics of a dedisciplined philosophy, and emphasizes that dedisciplining philosophy requires attention to be paid to the linked institutional and theoretical elements of philosophy. The essay bases its argument in part on the results of a survey sent to more than 500 philosophy departments across North America in the summer of 2010.