Why I’m on Medium

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            <h2>Why #CancelStudentDebt Is the Right Thing to Do</h2>
            <div><h3>Morality and pragmatism combine to present to us a clear choice.</h3></div>
            <div><p>dgilesphilosopher.medium.com</p></div>
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    </div><p id="1598">The higher education system is part of why I say I am an intellectual, not an academic. A bigger reason is the nature of academia. I often prefer to talk philosophy with non-faculty people. Talking with tenured academics is too often difficult when their ears are so full of their own thoughts that they cannot listen, and their mouths so full of their own opinions they cannot speak clearly.</p><p id="ab84">Then there’s the tinge of viciousness in academia from people who care too much about credentials and conformity. Oh, you thought academia cared about only the quality of ideas? No, no, academics are people too, and like people everywhere, there is in academia an attitude of “we have a club and you’re not in it.” To too many in academia, your ideas are less important than what school you went to, what your current position is, and whether you defer to the prevailing opinions of a small group. Not that there aren’t many kind and open-minded people in academia, just not enough of them.</p><h2 id="fe08">The Quest to Be Constructive</h2><p id="93bc">I will never not want to teach and never not want to write. The question for me has been how to use my talents more constructively. So, a few years ago I made the decision to teach only part-time at my university so that I can devote more time to writing. I also made the decision to reach a larger audience. I started publishing articles on the Internet. After a while, I discovered Medium.</p><p id="aee5">Sure, I have been published in academic journals. I have presented at a number of distinguished academic conferences. It’s fun. I get to interact with some great people, and I learn a lot.</p><p id="99de">But here’s the thing. Even the lowest-read a

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rticle that I publish on Medium is read by more people than articles published in academic journals. Also, unlike academic journals, Medium leads to conversations. People can and do respond and engage with what I write on Medium. Sure, I get some nasty attitudes from a very small number of readers here on Medium, because people are people. Nevertheless, I reach more people here than I ever would if I did the academic thing full-time. On Medium, I hear from people how much my articles mean to them, how much they have learned from what I write. That’s better than tenure and titles.</p><p id="5a3b">Plus, my readers on Medium give me the sense that when they think about philosophical ideas, they are thinking in terms of real life and how to make society a better place. Sadly, I don’t get that same sense from my colleagues in academia. Academia exists too much within a bubble — or an ivory tower if you will — removed from everyday life. Again, they are mostly good, well-meaning people, but they aren’t grounded in life, they are stranded in academia. Their ideas are separated from practical applications, and their thinking is separated from people outside academia.</p><p id="cfb9"><a href="https://readmedium.com/what-is-philosophy-9c9dd00c6afe">Philosophy is the search for fundamental principles on which we can build a better life</a>. That’s what I am engaged in, both when I teach university philosophy courses and when I write articles for Medium and elsewhere. I try to make a difference. I try to be constructive. That’s why I am on Medium.</p><div id="02a5" class="link-block"> <a href="https://dgilesphilosopher.medium.com/my-new-book-on-the-history-of-western-philosophy-cd90b845f131"> <div> <div> <h2>My New Book on the History of Western Philosophy</h2> <div><h3>If you like my Medium articles, you will love my book.</h3></div> <div><p>dgilesphilosopher.medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*IqGLHsV2Qz5HAOuAb2-6jQ.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

I’m an intellectual, not an academic; let me explain.

(Photo by author of artwork on a building demolished in 2016.)

I have a friend who teaches languages. She is very, very good at it; so good that the government contracts her to teach some of their people. She could have a job at any number of prestigious universities. Instead, she teaches at a community college because, she says, she wants to help underprivileged students.

My friend is a saint and I admire her greatly. She is doing far more good in the world teaching immigrants and the children of immigrants than being a chair of a snooty Ivy League school. She is using her talents more constructively.

I am no saint, but I have values similar to those of my friend. I trained to be a professional philosopher. I spent the nine years required and earned my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. What I was “supposed” to then do with that Ph.D. was make the rounds of obeyances at philosophy departments around the world until I glad-handed my way into a tenure-track position and be admitted into the ol’ boys’ club.

Uh, no, thank you. No offense, but my time and energy are better spent in other pursuits. That is what I have done.

That doesn’t mean I have abandoned higher education. I teach university courses, because like my friend, I want to help students. I don’t just have a Ph.D. in philosophy, I am a philosopher. I love philosophy and I want to do all that I can to help improve society and the lives of individual people.

Higher education is this weird but wonderful world. Similar to how I love music but hate the music industry, I love learning and teaching but hate what the education industry has become.

The higher education system is part of why I say I am an intellectual, not an academic. A bigger reason is the nature of academia. I often prefer to talk philosophy with non-faculty people. Talking with tenured academics is too often difficult when their ears are so full of their own thoughts that they cannot listen, and their mouths so full of their own opinions they cannot speak clearly.

Then there’s the tinge of viciousness in academia from people who care too much about credentials and conformity. Oh, you thought academia cared about only the quality of ideas? No, no, academics are people too, and like people everywhere, there is in academia an attitude of “we have a club and you’re not in it.” To too many in academia, your ideas are less important than what school you went to, what your current position is, and whether you defer to the prevailing opinions of a small group. Not that there aren’t many kind and open-minded people in academia, just not enough of them.

The Quest to Be Constructive

I will never not want to teach and never not want to write. The question for me has been how to use my talents more constructively. So, a few years ago I made the decision to teach only part-time at my university so that I can devote more time to writing. I also made the decision to reach a larger audience. I started publishing articles on the Internet. After a while, I discovered Medium.

Sure, I have been published in academic journals. I have presented at a number of distinguished academic conferences. It’s fun. I get to interact with some great people, and I learn a lot.

But here’s the thing. Even the lowest-read article that I publish on Medium is read by more people than articles published in academic journals. Also, unlike academic journals, Medium leads to conversations. People can and do respond and engage with what I write on Medium. Sure, I get some nasty attitudes from a very small number of readers here on Medium, because people are people. Nevertheless, I reach more people here than I ever would if I did the academic thing full-time. On Medium, I hear from people how much my articles mean to them, how much they have learned from what I write. That’s better than tenure and titles.

Plus, my readers on Medium give me the sense that when they think about philosophical ideas, they are thinking in terms of real life and how to make society a better place. Sadly, I don’t get that same sense from my colleagues in academia. Academia exists too much within a bubble — or an ivory tower if you will — removed from everyday life. Again, they are mostly good, well-meaning people, but they aren’t grounded in life, they are stranded in academia. Their ideas are separated from practical applications, and their thinking is separated from people outside academia.

Philosophy is the search for fundamental principles on which we can build a better life. That’s what I am engaged in, both when I teach university philosophy courses and when I write articles for Medium and elsewhere. I try to make a difference. I try to be constructive. That’s why I am on Medium.