Can philosophy survive in an academy driven by impact and employability?

"Like Socrates, philosophy has spent much of its history defending itself against the charges of irreverence, sophistry and corrupting the youth." I personally think the most informed charge against Socrates and the charge against modern philosophy is different. To begin with modern philosophy: the charge is not that it is useless for baking bread, rather it is pseudo-science. Bertrand Russell, for example, said we have no real science of ethics or self-development, the philosophers chair in a sense is empty, and philosophy has become journalistic. But his analytic philosophy did not shed light on ethics and self-development, it created a sort of literary pseudo-science that corrupts those trapped inside it. What about the charge aginst Socrates? Its quite different i think, he existed in a time when philosophers claimed to have discovered an art of ethics and self-development. But Socrates pulled apart many practioners showing them to be charlatans, meanwhile developing his own teachings. But why was he and is he hated by some? For keeping it secret as charged, for example, in Plato's Clitophan.

IPerhaps students understand the value of learning and doing philosophy for their lives better than politicians, university administrators and even some of us who teach philosophy. The closing example of a student asking her professor whether "marketing" philosophy for today's professional world reminds me of a recent teaching experience at a public college in Brooklyn, New York. We were commenting U.S. Senator Rubio's quip that "we need more welders and less philosophers." After noting his ignorance of the English language ("uuummm, Senator, shouldn't you say 'fewer philosophers'?), they interpreted that Rubio wasn't defending the value of blue-collar work, which would have been fine for my working-class students. They interpreted that behind his views and of those in the audience who applauded him, was the idea that philosophy is a fine pastime for the economic elite, but "useless" for the people who are supposed to serve them skillfully and without questioning the status quo. My students were incensed. They valued philosophical inquiry without needing to be told why. It is Senators, Governors, and many Rectors, Chancellors and University Presidents who need to get it.