This paper evaluates Pierre Hadot’s concept of ‘philosophy as a way of life’ (PWL) as a tool to critique academic philosophy. Firstly, I will provide a concise overview of Hadot’s critique through a discussion of two lesser-known texts. I will go on to submit that PWL, contrary to what its name might imply, does not primarily distinguish between philosophical theory and practice. Instead, through an exploration of relevant secondary sources, I will emphasize PWL’s focus on the spiritual dimension of philosophy, (...) or rather the lack thereof in the modern research university. A return to philosophy as a way of life, then, does not imply emancipation from the university as such, but rather from contemporary academia’s research practices and standards. Only then can philosophy rekindle its true essence, namely transforming the lives and worlds of many. (shrink)

Academic philosophy has undergone a homogenization since the Second World War that can be understood as a discursive colonization through analytic philosophy. This colonization directly results in the othering of non-analytic discourses as continental philosophy as well as the normalization of the discipline according to the analytic model. While analytic philosophy serves as the model for this continuing normalization, it is also itself the product of a normalization that occurred in the US during McCarthyism, resulting in the adaptation of mainstream (...) analytic philosophy to the ideological needs of the Cold War. As the historical result of this process, mainstream analytic philosophy can be genealogically defined as our current majoritarian philosophy. The principal normalization techniques of contemporary academic philosophy, such as prepublication peer review and quantified research evaluation, can be analyzed as a strategically coherent intensification of disciplinary techniques of power. These techniques primarily aim at reducing intellectual labour costs, controlling intellectual work, increasing quantifiable research performance, and breaking the relative autonomy of academic staff. (shrink)