Philosophy

Why has philosophy been marginalized by society?

Comments

If "philosophy" refers to a person's worldview or values, I am not sure philosophy can ever be marginalized. It is hard to imagine a civic culture without this being built on (and defined by) some kind of philosophy. Moreover, insofar as a culture includes reflections on worldviews and values, the practice of philosophy as a form of critical inquiry is again hard to marginalize. The philosophy in play may be pretty bad (involving incoherence, contradictions, based on bad history or science...) but bad philosophy is still philosophy.

If, instead, by "philosophy" you mean the institutional practice of philosophy as carried out in most universities and colleges, then the presupposition of your question (the assertion that philosophy is marginal in society) has some purchase. There have been a few universities that have dismantled philosophy departments. The University of Glasgow in Scotland is currently merging the philosophy faculty with faculty from other fields, for example (this event is on-going and the end is uncertain). Sometimes this is done in an effort to put more weight on the sciences and training in trades. But in the English-speaking world in general, philosophy retains a pretty healthy role. Philosophy texts are routinely reviewed in the TLS, London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times. In my school, the philosophy department is one of the most popular on campus. There are more online places to do philosophy than ever before, and these seem definitely on the increase. In the USA, philosophy majors do better in getting into law schools than other majors, and so on.

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