Interesting remarks from a leading young philosopher working in "metaphysics & epistemology" (broadly understood, as it usually is in these discussions, to include also philosophy of language and mind). All names have been omitted, to protect the innocent (and the guilty):
"I think there is a bad problem with senior people in M&E currently. Basically, there are too many older megalomaniacs who are extremely hostile to anyone who doesn't genuflect. And the megalomaniacs are spread out across different areas.... If I get like that when I'm older, I hope you will remind me of these words. I remember when a department I was in asked [one megalomaniac] for a comparative judgement on two tenured philosophers [in M&E]. He claimed not
to have heard of one of them, and didn't offer any judgement on the other. He then (unsolicitedly) provided a ranked list of his 'top twenty' philosophers [in M&E]--each and every one of them was one of his old buddies, or a younger...philosopher...who is a camp follower of his. It was utterly shocking to my department (and became somewhat of a joke)....
"The megalomaniacs in M&E are not helping their cause. To take an example from the philosphy of language, people outside philosophy of language (unless they've been indoctrinated) typically think that the 'direct reference' program has been a tempest in a teapot, and hasn't yielded a great deal of philosophical insight. And they're right. So they're not going to hire more direct-reference hacks. If the elder philosophers of language insist that only direct-reference hacks should be hired in M&E positions, then they're just going to succeed in getting historians and ethicists hired.
"Generalizing, the point is that pushing students of one's own agenda, even if that agenda has led to some interesting positions, is self-destructive. Those outside the field will associate that agenda with the senior statesperson, and not think the younger senior-statesperson flunky is original. They'll then conclude that there is nothing new happening in that subfield, and look elsewhere for appointments. So one worry with M&E now is that too many of the senior statespersons are megalomaniacs with the self-destructive agenda of pushing their own programs. And that affects hiring in M&E. Fewer historians seem
to have been infected with meglomania, to the great credit of history of philosophy (though maybe it's something in the nature of the study of history vs. advancing one's own philosophical agenda)."
I've opened comments on this one, and invite philosophers working in these fields to react. NO ANONYMOUS POSTS.
UPDATE 5/9 (3 pm): If you've read this far, do read the comments too for a number of quite interesting observations by others, faculty and students.
