A self-identified "analytic" philosopher in a non-English speaking country writes:
I was wondering if you could ask the question below in your blog. The topic is very important to professional philosophers from outside the English-speaking world and they will most likely benefit from the comments of your readers.
In ‘The Language of Publication of "Analytic" Philosophy’, Rodriguez-Pereyra argued that original research in analytical philosophy should be published exclusively in English. Assuming he is right, analytical philosophers from non-English speaking countries should stop publishing research in their native languages and start publishing in English. Assuming also that those analytical philosophers would be willing to give a fair visibility to their work, they should try to publish their research if not in top journals, at least in well-recognized ones. What happens is that if the task of publishing in well-recognized journals is difficult for philosophers from the best departments of the English-speaking world, it is even more difficult for those philosophers from outside this circle. Apart from the difficulties that stem from the very fact of writing in a non-native language, I think there are two main problems.
The first was pointed out by by Gualtiero Piccinini. He mentioned that given “the difficulty of publishing in good journals, this system actually creates incentives against publishing in good, international journals: other things being equal, those who devote their efforts to publishing in international journals will publish less than those who publish in local journals, and then they will be at a disadvantage”.
The second problem is the lack of feedback that philosophers from outside the English-speaking countries have. The rationale for this is quite simple: If one needs to publish in a well-recognized journal, one will need to have a paper worthy of it. It means one has to have a paper comparable with those produced by the best philosophers from the best departments. Those philosophers normally receive tons of feedback from colleagues and colloquia before submitting the paper. This just does not happen in (at least) some countries where people do not simply know how to give good feedback and colloquia are mostly “praise time” with no criticism allowed. The only way out is trying to get feedback from abroad. And this is just a very hard thing to get.
The natural way to do this is via e-mail: I have a draft and send an e-mail to someone who I know is interested in the topic of my paper. Well, it may be me, but most of the time I get no answers. But I can imagine what can be the common reasons: First, professional philosophers are too busy. They have their own work to manage, and are loaded with papers from their colleagues and students that they are expected to give feedback. Second, receiving such an e-mail may be a little unpleasant and invasive. So, my question is: What is the best way to ask for feedback for those who are outside the main circles of philosophy? I think a similar problem may happen with those philosophers who despite being in English-speaking countries come from small universities.
