Philosophy in Iceland

This is the thirteenth installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. This is a guest contribution by Finnur Dellsén, Associate Professor at the University of Iceland.

The first thing to say about Iceland concerns its size. With a population of around 380,000, around 250,000 of which live in or near the capital, Reykjavik, the opportunities for philosophers who want to work in Iceland are inevitably rather limited. My guess is that the total number of philosophers employed at Icelandic universities is around 20 to 30, although there of course many more philosophers working elsewhere in Icelandic society – including in high school, publishing, and the media. Most academic philosophers work at the University of Iceland, located in Reykjavik, which is by far the largest university and the only one that offers a full-time studies in philosophy.

The structure of Icelandic academia has been influenced by the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) in several respects. A student‘s first university degree is normally a three-year Bachelor degree, followed by a two-year Masters degree, and a doctoral degree which is official three years (but usually takes longer to complete in practice). Most Icelandic universities, including the University of Iceland, are run by the state, and they are almost exclusively financed by taxation rather than by student tuition. Thus, one‘s entire university education is more-or-less free and accessible regardless of one‘s financial situation.

For those who are interested in doing philosophy for a living, the difficult part is getting an academic job once you have finished studying for your PhD. Even those who have studied abroad at prestigious universities and published in top journals usually cannot expect to secure a permanent position in Iceland until 10 to 15 years after graduating. Unfortunately, it is also quite difficult to secure postdoctoral positions and other temporary research positions in Iceland, so many philosophers are forced into hourly teaching contracts and various other precarious, temporary, and poorly-paid jobs. It goes without saying that many talented philosophers have given up on securing an academic job for this reason.

However, those who are fortunate enough to get one of the few jobs on offer are quite fortunate indeed. Advertised jobs are usually for a "lektor", which is roughly equivalent to a "Lecturer" in the UK and an "assistant professor" in the US. Unlike the US assistant professorships, these are not "tenure-track" position, but rather permanent positions (subject only to a minor review in one‘s fifth year, which is more a formality than anything like an American "tenure review"). So one is effectively tenured once one gets one‘s first permanent job. Unlike the UK, however, it is not particularly difficult to advance up the ranks to become a "dósent" ("Reader"/"associate professor"), and then "prófessor" (full professor). Indeed, it is not uncommon for Icelandic academics to be promoted immediately when they are hired into their first permanent position.

Like the rest of Iceland‘s workforce, academics are rigorously unionized and therefore enjoy a great deal of security and various benefits. Their salaries are determined less by their job title and more by a complicated system that awards "points" for various achievements, such as publications, grants, and even teaching and administrative experience. (This system was negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement between the state and the academics that are subject to it.) Those who publish frequently in well-regarded journals can thus increase their yearly salary substantially, in addition to getting a lighter teaching load in some instances. This can be stressful but also highly beneficial, especially for those who are active researchers.

For those with permanent jobs, the teaching load is relatively light compared to most other countries with which I am familiar. The required amount of teaching is determined by various factors (e.g. the number of students in each class and the number of meetings per class), but my sense is that most permanent staff will normally teach something like 3 courses per year (a 2/1 load). In Iceland, anyone with a high school diploma will be admitted into the Bachelor program in philosophy at the University of Iceland, which means that the quality of students varies quite widely. This can be a serious challenge – especially in highly "cumulative" courses, such as symbolic logic, where it is important that as many students as possible understand one part of the material before moving to the next one. Many of the students are very bright, however, and almost all of them are genuinely interested and excited about philosophy. This latter fact is no doubt due to the fact that no one is required to take philosophy to fulfill some formal requirement; indeed, most of our students are planning to study philosophy full time (three years), or as their major (two years) or minor (one year).

Since the academic community in Iceland is small, much of philosophical research is inevitably done in English (and occasionally in German) and published in international journals. In general, Icelanders have a good working knowledge of English and are used to reading, speaking, and listening to English. This is so in part because Iceland is a popular tourist destination and in part because of the cultural influence from when British and later American armies were stationed in Iceland during the World War II and the Cold War. However, there is also a long tradition of writing about philosophy in Icelander‘s native language, Icelandic, and a surprising number of classic works has been translated into Icelandic. There is even an Icelandic journal of academic philosophy, Hugur, which publishes articles, translations, and book reviews in Icelandic. (I was editor-in-chief for the 2018 and 2019 volumes.) In addition, there are usually around 2-3 books about philosophy published in Icelandic each year.

Lastly, I‘d like to mention that many Icelandic philosophers are semi-public intellectuals who are frequently interviewed in Icelandic media on various occasions. For instance, in the past month or so, I have personally been interviewed three separate times about my philosophical work in national media (two radio interviews and a magazine interview). In my experience, many Icelanders are genuinely interested in philosophy, as long as it is made at least somewhat accessible, and open events on philosophical topics are often well attended by the public. Philosophers are also frequently called on to serve as experts on ethics and political issues. When the Icelandic banking system collapsed in 2008, for example, the Iceland Parliament ordered a 9-volume report on its roots and causes; one of these volumes was written by a committee consisting of one historian and two academic philosophers.

Comments

[Casey]

Great post, Finnur! Thanks for sharing.

[Don Savage]

This is an interesting contrast to the educational system in Singapore, a similar small country.