Loneliness, lemons, and lemonade

I have been following this interesting thread on the positives and negatives of becoming a professional philosopher all week (also see here) and was struck by--and identified a bit with--the following comment on professional loneliness after graduate school:

I agree with all of the positives listed above. However this negative has yet to be mentioned, and it's been a big one for me as I decide whether to continue in the profession: Loneliness.

As a graduate student you are (hopefully) part of a fairly large community of scholars who work on similar or overlapping issues/areas as you. The community aspect of graduate school is great, if you take advantage. But this is lost (for most) once you enter the profession. You may well be the only Kant scholar or HPS person or metaphysician, etc. at your college. You may even be in a faculty with half a dozen or fewer scholars, and if you're really unlucky many of your colleagues will be fairly absent. You may find yourself in a work environment where you go entire days without a real conversation or meaningful connection (lecturing doesn't quite cut it).

Having worked outside of academia, where work friends were common, I now miss having a community. Meeting people at conferences helps, of course. I have made many friends that I see a couple of times per year, all over the world. But that's no substitute for the close on-going personal relationships that develop in a standard working environment.

I struggle with similar feelings sometimes myself. I am currently in a department with only three full-time faculty (myself included), and with one faculty member who is retiring at the end of this year. While we get along splendidly as colleagues, our philosophical interests are quite different: I focus on ethics, political philosophy, and metaphysics; my department chair focuses on Chinese philosophy and areas of metaphysics that I know little about; and our third (retiring) member focuses almost exclusively on aesthetics (something I know next to nothing about). In my 6+ years at my school, I can literally count the serious philosophical discussions I have had with my colleagues on one hand. Our discussions focus instead on departmental and college issues, as well as our personal lives. All of which, obviously, is quite different than grad school. In grad school, you're surrounded by a panoply of people to talk philosophy with. Conferences and the only time I ever really get to talk philosophy with anyone but undergrads. And when I go to conferences I am like a kid in a candy store. It is wonderful to talk philosophy. Alas, I only have enough research funding to attend a couple of conferences a year, and so, for better or worse, I have essentially become a philosophical loner.

Sometimes this gets me down a little bit. I think of how cool it might be to talk philosophy on a daily basis--to have colloquia, etc. But, as with all things, I think it is important to try to make the best of what you have (and indeed, I recognize that I am very lucky in many respects!). And so I thought I would write this post on how to make the most of it! Given that (as the above commenter points out) many, if not most, academic jobs are similar to ours--jobs in small departments with few people to talk philosophy with--what's the best way to deal with "philosophical loneliness"?

I have dealt with it in primarily two ways. The first way is making your students--in my case, undergrads--your philosophical interlocutors. While a few people at the Leiter thread has spoken a bit disparagingly of undergraduate students--calling them "hapless", unable to think critically, write effectively etc.--I've found that doing philosophy primarily with undergrads can have many benefits, at least if you approach it in a certain way. The great thing about undergrads, in my experience, is that they are novices. First, because they have no background in philosophy, you are forced as their teacher/interlocutor to make things crystal clear to them, cutting through philosophical jargon to core issues--that is, at least if you are going to make any sense to them and get them to engage in philosophical conversation. In my experience, this has great benefits. Whereas a lot of professional philosophy seems to me to get lost in the trees--with ever-more complex and abstract formulations and solutions to problems--your undergrads can help you stay grounded and keep track of the proverbial forest. Second, and on a similar note, undergrads in my experience often have good "professional philosophy B.S. detectors". There are some arguments and theories that professional philosophers are rather enamored with that, in my experience, undergrads and other non-philosophers tend to find quite unconvincing even after you've clarified things. In some cases, this has led to what I've felt are good philosophical insights--cases where it has seemed to me that the undergrads are right and professionals "caught in the grip of a theory." In short, although I am a bit philosophically lonely, I've been able to find an outlet: the classroom! Although it doesn't entirely make up for philosophical loneliness, it's not a very bad substitute.

The other thing that has been surprisingly nice about being philosophically lonely is that it can be a real opportunity to explore far-out--but potentially cool--ideas. My department chair, for instance, did analytic metaphysics in grad school but has increasingly gravitated to Chinese philosophy and yoga: areas of philosophy and practice that (by all appearances) lend meaning to his life. It goes without saying, I think, that he wouldn't be able to focus on those things if he were in an R1 department. Similarly, I have experienced working in a tiny department as incredibly liberating. Whereas in grad school and my first VAP position at a research school I was always comparing what I was doing against what others around me were doing--something which I think undoubtedly affected which philosophical problems I worked, on which ideas I pursued, which ideas I considered promising or worthless--in my current job I haven't experienced any of these things. I've felt entirely free to work on what I think is interesting without worrying of embarrassing myself in front of my colleagues with crazy ideas. Whereas I always felt philosophically insecure in grad school and my first job, now the only people I feel like I need to convince of the worth of my work are (A) myself, and (B) professional gatekeepers (i.e. reviewers, acquisitions editors, etc.). Finally, since like most people I don't know what in the world reviewers are looking for, this has pretty much reduced that binary to one: convincing myself of the worth of what I'm working on, and hoping reviewers agree. Which has been incredibly liberating. There are few things as philosophically enjoyable, in my experience, as working on what you want to work on without worrying (too much, at any rate) what those in your department will think of it!

In short, I've experienced philosophical loneliness as something like a basket full of lemons: a bit sour sometimes, yes, but also pretty refreshing, at least if you mix it with the right ingredients. Have you been in a similar position? If so, what's your experience been?

Comments

[Michel X.]

I did my UG in a similarly small department in a very, very small Canadian town. One thing that the faculty there did to combat the potential isolation was team up with the history department (and one other department that I can't remember, along with a handful of interested parties from other departments) for a colloquium talk every week or two. They just gave work in progress (although since it was hosted by the philosophy department, I think the thought was that the work should be philosophy-ish in character [e.g. history of ideas, literary theory]), and invited feedback from their peers and senior majors.

[Loner]

I'm one of 4 philosophers within a multidisciplinary liberal arts catch-all dept. The others are all working on Continental, and I'm the sole analytic philosopher, doing applied ethics. A few weeks ago, I was struggling with some revisions for a paper, and just really needed to talk a point through with someone. But there was no one. Although I generally feel pretty isolated at work, at that moment, it really hit me that the isolation was potentially affecting the quality of my work. Since then, I've gone out of my way to seek out other philosophers on Facebook, to try to build more of a community around myself. It's not a perfect solution, but I've at least enjoyed the company and the occasional outbursts of philosophy there.