The Philosophers' Cocoon

A safe and supportive forum for philosophers.

Owned & Moderated by Marcus Arvan (University of Tampa)

Contact: marvan@ut.edu

Blog mission & moderation policy

IMPORTANT NOTE on how to ensure anonymity in commenting
Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2026-27)

recent posts

about

Disconnected from the public/social aspects of the profession?

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

I know this is a little open-ended, and is more a confession than a question, but does anyone feel just ‘disconnected’ from the more public-facing sided aspects of the philosophy community? There’s a vibrant philosophical community on social media, a vibrant community of people at conferences. Is it odd to just…not care? I enjoy my colleagues, my friends from grad school, the scholars working on adjacent work to mine, but beyond that, I feel no real pressure to have a ‘presence’ as a philosopher in this social-philosophy-sphere. I enjoy my teaching, I enjoy doing my research, I enjoy chatting about my and others’ work when I’m at conferences, but the ‘being connected’ into ‘what’s going on’ in the discipline I just feel is not for me. I don’t care what people are arguing about, who said what, the newest controversy about rankings or AI or the APA…I just really couldn’t care less. Maybe relevant is that I’ve been tt job-hunting for a few years now, so admittedly perhaps there’s some disillusionment I feel. Idk. I guess I’m just curious about how others feel about this, if anyone commiserates, or if I’m just being a wet blanket.

I empathize with the OP, particularly after becoming a father. I have a toddler and home and being present for her and invested as a parent has become a much larger (and rewarding) priority for me.

What about other readers? Are you heavily invested in the public/social aspects of the profession, or are you more like the OP?

Posted in

7 responses to “Disconnected from the public/social aspects of the profession?”

  1. Anonymous

    I don’t think this attitude is indicative of being a wet blanket. I think some of the things you mention feeling disconnected from aren’t worth caring about in the first place. So, it sounds to me as if you’re in it for the right reasons, which is probably a good thing.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    After I got tenure, conferences and publication seemed to me to have little intrinsic value–or any significant value compared to the costs in money, time, travel hassle, social awkwardness, etc. Like OP, I was not interested in putting effort into those sorts of activities (certainly not the keeping up with disciplinary gossip). I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of people employed in philosophy are not active in the “community” of philosophers, whether at conferences or in online spaces. Checking in at the Cocoon is just about all I do these days!

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    I think there are maybe a couple different things happening here that are being run together. I don’t equate conferences with social media, I don’t equate caring about rankings with caring about what AI is doing to teaching. Some of these seem like they are part of the value of the intellectual work (finding out what others are saying about topics, getting feedback on ideas) and some don’t (gossip vs worries about the well-being of students). I guess I’m not sure what OP means by “public facing” parts of the discipline? (Since OP expresses being interested in work of others in their area.)

    Mostly, I say, you do you. If you are being a responsible teacher and researcher, do what makes you happy. I go to a lot of conferences because I find talking about work with others the best part of the job.

    Reply
  4. AnAnon

    There’s one conference I go to because a lot of my friends from grad school go to it. Otherwise, I am at a community college that does not care whether I publish or have any sort of public profile, so I happily ignore all that and teach in the near-total anonymity that my name here implies. I do not believe that this puts me in violation of any obligations I have to others or to myself.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    As someone who felt quite isolated in pursuing philosophy early in my career, my only way of finding out about what goes on in the profession was through blogs (more popular at that time than social media platforms right now). When I got to interact with people at conferences (during the rare times I got travel funding) it was a revelation to be able to build conversations around all these things I found out online while largely isolated from what happened in elite departments, who was colleagues with whom etc. Moreover, I found these conversations more humane than still talking about research or narrow issues late into the night over dinner/drinks. I think there is a significant gender aspect to this too, and it is interesting that a comment above mentions gossip, which can often be one of the few relevant sources of information for people lower in the hierarchy trying to survive in the discipline.

    In the meantime tables have turned for me and these days I have quite generous funding to attend academic events. At times I also question the effort, the time, the environmental costs, but I feel that having this common ground helps relate to other philosophers and think together about broader issues with the profession – like department closures, problems with academic publishing, academic precarity, prestige hierarchies etc. I don´t think one need be on top of everything going on in the profession to be a good philosopher, if I think of my own institution I am one of the few people up to date these issues and I am happy to share information colleagues may find of interest.

    Reply
  6. dazesensationallye39c0dc2cd

    As a practical matter, I’d say job-hunting puts enough on your plate; it’s fine to be less invested in “organized philosophy,” for lack of a better term. But as a supervisor of PhD students, I do worry sometimes when I come across a grad — as I do now more than ever — who has no interest whatsoever in the goings-on of the profession, someone who never heard of, or has no interest in checking out, the Leiter reports or Daily Nous or the Cocoon (!), who wouldn’t know or care about major controversies in the profession (like the Tuvel affair some years ago). It won’t really affect my support or written assessments of this person, but for reasons I can’t fully articulate, it doesn’t sit right with me. I guess it looks like a lack of interest in the philosophical community, in the guild they’re trying so hard to join. But I don’t think the only alternative to this disengagement is to be very active in professional organizations and events.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    It sounds to me like you’re just describing work-life balance. Your social and personal life aren’t exhausted by professional concerns? You are selective in your engagement with social media and gossipy news? Those are *good* things.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Discover more from The Philosophers' Cocoon

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading