I defended my dissertation 20 years ago today
The first questioner began, “Well, Mr. Talisse.... I’m not persuaded by any of your arguments. Reading this spoiled my Thanksgiving”
He paused, and I responded, “That wasn’t a question”
Things escalated
When I was Chair, I had to review the student evaluations for undergrad courses taught by PhD candidates. Some of the students’ comments were so offensive, I began telling Instructors not to read their evaluations. No employer gets to require you to read anonymous insults.
Final:
Vanderbilt is my first and thus far only job — I started as assistant prof straight out of grad school. When I got the offer from Vandy, I had a similar offer pending at a comparable department. I took the Vandy job almost over the phone, I think partly out of spite.
I had a philo prof in college who told me that by the time I was finished with my PhD, I should have a 10 minute refutation of every major philosopher
I saw him at the APA the year I finished. He walked up to me and said “Wittgenstein. Go!”
A new PhD student came into my office and said “I think I want to work in political philosophy. Can you give me a list of 20 articles from the past decade that everyone in the field needs to read?”
The academic year is off to a remarkably good start
Coda: after passing the defense, I circulated to my committee a list of the tenure-track faculty jobs I had applied to.
This guy returned the list w a few schools circles in red, with the words “These places will never hire you.”
Vanderbilt was circled in red.
A few years ago, I arrived in Athens and the broader agent asked me my profession. “I’m a philosopher,” I replied
Looking suspicious, he asked “Who’s the best Greek philosopher?”
I responded, “Aristotle”
He stamped my passport and said, “Correct. Proceed.”
Cc:
@GreggDCaruso
As a junior prof, I made a list of senior colleagues’ irritating behaviors at meetings. I wanted to remind my future self how not to act
#28
: It’s ok not to “weigh in” when your view is identical to the one everyone has already agreed to
I had a prof in grad school who asked at every dissertation defense “What’s the strongest objection to your thesis?”
Candidates were frequently thrown off by it.
Years ago, I bought this used copy of Randall’s CAREER OF PHILOSOPHY solely because the only thing its owner saw fit to underline in the whole book was that Descartes was French.
A student from a few years ago just mentioned that because they couldn’t discern my own political leanings from my Political Philosophy lectures, they assumed I was a conservative
Not sure what to make of that
At the Bank
Teller: You’re a professor? So, what do you do all summer?
My Colleague: I’m writing a book
T: Interesting. What’s it about?
C: Ethics
T: Terrific. I always thought there should be a book about that
OVERHEARD:
“I love my philosophy class. It’s like, one guy says to another guy ‘you’re tall,’ and the other guy says ‘no, actually you’re just short’. And then they both run off to write a book.”
A colleague once got a term paper in his Philosophy of Mind course that began with the following sentence:
“In this paper, I will prove that the mind is identical to the body, but not the other way around.”
Years ago, there was a guy who regularly showed up at our weekly department colloquium who nobody knew. In Q&A, he’d always ask an off-the-wall question that typically involved a reference to Dr. Who.
After the speaker responded to his question, he’d get up and leave.
Job candidate: On the first day of my Ethics class, I tell students to go out on campus & take pictures of people they find attractive. We discuss the photos on day 2
Me: Are your students told they need to get permission from those they photograph?
Candidate (puzzled): Huh? No
I was a philosophy MA student at NYU when they decided to re-open their PhD program. A distinguished faculty member announced to the grad lounge, “We’re launching a PhD program. None of you should apply. We’re only accepting people from places like Oxford.”
Me, 1st year grad student, minding my own business in the library, reading Aristotle (actually: struggling to read him in Greek)….
Famous philosopher: Whatcha reading?
Me: Aristotle
FP: Aristotle? What for? I’ve never read a word of Aristotle. It didn’t hurt me any
Mastered Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason? Endured Hegel’s Phenomenology? Big deal.
Try a 744-page book on Greek particles. Over 40 pages devoted solely to γάρ (“however,” “indeed,” “although,” or “actually”). Then you’ll know what pain is.
In my 2nd year as faculty, my dept was hiring. Interviews were at the APA. At the a smoker, interviewees had to jockey for the attention of search com members
One candidate mistook me for a grad student, & spent 15 mins telling me my dept should “never have hired Robert Talisse”
THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF DEMOCRACY. Fantastic new volume edited by Hana Samaržija and
@QCassam
, out in April with
@Routledge_Phil
. Pleased to be included in this fabulous lineup.
@Cat_Eat_Burger
At the time, over 50% of the PhD students in my department were women. And the comments about appearance, wardrobe (and worse) were staggering.
Me: Here’s the syllabus for an intro to political theory undergrad course I teach every Fall.
Randos in my DMs: You fool! You can’t teach political theory without assigning all of my favorite books. You must not know what you’re doing. Your poor students learn nothing!
A Coda: later in the conversation he said,
“You’re here looking for a job, right? You’re going to get one. That means you’ll have roughly 9 months between now and when you start. Go and read al the books your profs in grad school told you to ignore.”
It’s Arthur Schopenhauer’s 234th birthday.
Please celebrate by reflecting on the fact that his own mother closed a letter to him with these words:
“If you were less like you, you would only be ridiculous, but thus as you are, you are highly annoying.”
There’s a kind of philosopher who sincerely thinks that because they’re expert in a subfield of the discipline they regard as especially difficult (say, Logic), they’re also expert in subfields they regard as easier (say, Ethics)
A student starting their PhD dissertation asked for advice on how to begin
I reverted to something I was told when I began: Your dissertation isn’t your magnum opus. It’s not the compilation of every worthwhile idea you’ve got. And it’s not your final chance to speak.
Philosophy weddings are the weirdest weddings. A gathering of badly-dressed people who can talk only about the paper they’re currently writing.
Just like an APA conference, but with terrifying dancing.
Back in 2001, I turned some notes into a tiny intro book on Rawls. The book isn’t great, but it did prompt a lovely letter from Mrs. Rawls. Apparently she read it to John (he was too ill at the time to read it himself), and he enjoyed it.
A drunk rando in a coffeeshop just had a freak out because he overheard me talking to a student about Habermas, but thought we were talking about Hamas.
When I explained we were talking about a German philosopher, he insisted Habermas was an Arab.
What a world.
Certain things about academia begin to make sense once you realize that a number of faculty in other departments think of themselves as philosophers, but have no training in the discipline
As a junior prof, I made a list of senior colleagues’ irritating behaviors at meetings. I wanted to remind my future self how not to act
#8
: It’s ok to have an unexpressed thought.
A year after Rawls’s death, a shady guy at an APA meeting, who told me he wasn’t an academic, offered to sell me John Rawls’s copy of Sidgwick’s *Methods of Ethics*. In a whisper, he emphasized that there were “tons of handwritten notes in the margins”
I’m not making this up
@TwoTonguesPod
I started developing a reductio of the “family resemblances” thing, he interrupted (I think satisfied) and asked for my refutation of Frege. A few sentences into that, he interrupted again and asked for a refutation of Schopenhauer.
Around this time every year, I get a phone call from a colleague who retired shortly after I joined my department
When I pick up the phone, he doesn’t say “hello” or “how are you?” Instead, he simply hollers, “Talisse! Tell me . . . are any of my enemies dead yet?”
Thrilled with the cover for SUSTAINING DEMOCRACY: WHAT WE OWE TO THE OTHER SIDE. It’ll be out with
@OUPPhilosophy
in September. Please have a look. The painting is by Ian Thuillier.
I realize that I commonly express a cynical view of philosophy on here. But I just spent a 30 minute Uber ride talking to a 20 year-old about the Trolley Problem, and his mind was, in fact, blown.
When I was Chair, I was tasked by the administration with reviewing undergraduate classes for grade inflation. I found a colleague who routinely gave every student in their class an A.
I asked my colleague about this. Their response: “I’m a great teacher.”
Unsolicited writing tip:
Create a “spare parts” document where you paste all of the lovely stuff you’ve written that doesn’t fit and so must be deleted
Tell yourself that you can always go back into the “spare parts” to recover what you deleted if need be. But never do that
Unsolicited advice for people entering a PhD program in philosophy this fall:
Maintain your nonacademic interests. If you don’t have any, develop some.
Remember when Tom Nagel became a famous philosopher by “musing on whether we could still be human if we had bat-like features”?
Good times, good times….
Back in college, a friend turned in a paper for a philosophy class, and hadn’t noticed that he mistakenly inserted a blank sheet between pages 8 and 9
He got it back, and the prof wrote on the blank page “best page so far”
We’re both philosophy professors today.
At A Restaurant
Server (sits down): I overheard you talking. You’re a philosopher?
Me: yes
S: So… what’s your view about lab-grown chicken?
Me: I’m a vegetarian, and don’t like the taste of meat, but I guess it’s ok
S (whispering): But what about lab-grown *human* meat??
OVERHEARD IN A PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT
P1: Hey… your jacket is just like mine!
P2: Huh? Mine’s black wool, yours is tan corduroy. They’re nothing alike.
P1: Well… they’re both material objects…