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If your published work isn’t read, why do you do philosophy?

In our newest “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

In a recent thread a lot of people were sharing a sentiment that it doesn’t really matter what you publish about because basically no one will read your work anyway. To people who feel this way, I wanted to ask, what are you doing philosophy for?

On the one hand, one answer to this question seems pretty obvious: many of us do it for ourselves (i.e., because we enjoy doing it, writing it, treat it as a process of personal discovery, etc.). And of course this rationale doesn’t just apply to philosophy but to other things too. I’m not merely a philosopher but also a musician, and I still write and record songs. Why? Because I love creating music!

On the other hand, I wonder if many of us who adopt this perspective also fall prey from time to time to the nagging feeling, “If no one ever reads my philosophical work, is the internal enjoyment of doing it/discovery enough to make spending so much time on it worthwhile?”

Fortunately (I think?), claims that “no one reads your work” may be overblown. Looking at people’s PhilPeople/Philpapers pages, lots of works do appear to be read (or at least downloaded) by significant numbers of people. And why isn’t the possibility of “changing or influencing a few minds” on something enough? Can’t we ask similar questions about most human activities, all of which ultimately fade into the dusts of time?

What do readers think?

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9 responses to “If your published work isn’t read, why do you do philosophy?”

  1. Michel

    I publish, despite having no need to do so, because I enjoy being part of the conversation with my fellow aestheticians. For me, reading and engaging with their work is part and parcel of building and belonging to that community. It’s fun and rewarding for me.

    It looks like people are reading my work, sometimes even outside philosophy. Some even engage with it in turn. It’s certainly not loads of people, but it’s enough that some are. Some things are going mostly unread–e.g. maybe some translations I’ve done or am doing. But that’s okay: I mainly want them to be there when someone needs them. If one day a grad student somewhere is hunting around for something and, because I did it, it becomes available to them, then that’s enough. I have benefited so much from precisely the same thing.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    That was me. If “doing philosophy” = publishing, well, I do so because it helps me get (and keep) a job that provides financial stability for me and my family by doing something I love.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      This was me as well. It is just my job. A large part of whether others would read my work is socially constructed and beyond my control. I would like to work on topics that I like but not others like. Also, so many people’s lives left no trace in the world, and I am not more important than them.

      Reply
    2. Anonymous

      I think I’m in this camp in terms of attitude and I currently share this view more or less. I just got my first permanent job and it feels easy to maintain this attitude right now. There is literally nothing else I would rather do as a career than this. Even if my work never gets read, I get to spend most of my working time thinking and talking about philosophy (counting teaching in here!). I remember being 20, going to business school, working crap internships, and reading philosophy at night dreaming about being able to do this full time. And, if I didn’t publish, I wouldn’t get to do that. So, unread publications still feel great and at least instrumentally rewarding toward an important end in my life.

      I will also say that maybe part of the reason I have a positive attitude towards it is that I still feel there’s a chance people will read my work one day! So, maybe I’m not the person OP is looking for and I will feel differently and more jaded in ten years.

      Reply
  3. Anonymous

    Since Op explicitly asked “To people who feel this way, I wanted to ask, what are you doing philosophy for?”, I suppose they are interested in the experience of people who think their work is not being read. I think I satisfy this condition, and can share how I feel.

    The feeling that my work is not being read (beyond the referees and maybe one person) does indeed impact my motivation to *publish*. I write drafts to sort out thoughts for myself and for the joy of new discovery, but publication process is to seek audience and impact and job security and promotion.

    However, it is motivationally useful to get occasional indicator that my work is potential important even though it is not currently being read. For example, I can see that my work is relevant to what other people are working on through conversations with them. This provides some motivation to publish. I hope that answers your question!

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I do philosophy by teaching it. I think that has far more impact in the world than publishing, and I get much more fulfillment from it.

    I publish because I have to.

    (It’s also worth noting that OP’s question derives from a misunderstanding. When people in the other thread were saying that “no one will read your stuff,” the ‘no one’ was referring to admins, the public, and other non-philosophers).

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    That’s a good question. I think that the lack of readership is connected with the kinds of work that receive reward from our profession (e.g., getting in prestigious journals easily) are devastatingly narrow – oftentimes incremental to some internal debates that only very few people care about – and of little interest to those who are not working on those issues. Try to write something that is significant across time, like some diagnoses of deep human conditions and how to get out of real-world problems that we are facing. Except for those very few topics that have already been identified as publishable by the journal editors, one is likely to get stuck in the publishing process really, really badly.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    In addition to the intrinsic value of doing/writing philosophy, I personally enjoy the challenge of writing for publication. Even if no one (aside from the referee(s)) ends up reading my paper, the fact that it got accepting at a respectable venue gives me a sense of accomplishment and validates the idea that my work is at least *worthy* of engagement, whether or not it actually *is* engaged with. Also, if you’re lucky enough to have a permanent academic appointment, there’s prudential reason to publish, e.g. it will contribute to the strength of your case when you go up for promotion, etc.

    Reply
  7. anon

    It’s fun and I get paid to do it.

    Reply

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