Right in the Feels: Academic Philosophy, Disappointed Students, and the Big Questions of Life
Dung L, Balg D (2025)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2025
Journal
Book Volume: 48
Pages Range: 37-45
Journal Issue: 1
DOI: 10.5840/teachphil2025227215
Abstract
It is plausible that there is a contrast between the rich emotional content which is often connected to laypeople’s interest in philosophy and the emotional austerity of doing academic philosophy. We propose the hypothesis that this contrast is one cause of the disappointment some students experience when they begin to study philosophy in college. We also propose a more demanding hypothesis, according to which this emotional contrast is confused with a semantic difference, which misleads students to think that the questions which initially caused their interest in philosophy are not even considered by academic philosophy research. Moreover, we provide a list of concrete empirical research questions which need to be answered to establish whether these hypotheses are true, and we argue that, if they are true, they give rise to a hitherto unnoticed and important challenge to the teaching of philosophy.
Authors with CRIS profile
Leonard Dung
Lehrstuhl für Theory and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (Alexander von Humboldt-Professur)
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Dung, L., & Balg, D. (2025). Right in the Feels: Academic Philosophy, Disappointed Students, and the Big Questions of Life. Teaching Philosophy, 48(1), 37-45. https://doi.org/10.5840/teachphil2025227215
MLA:
Dung, Leonard, and Dominik Balg. "Right in the Feels: Academic Philosophy, Disappointed Students, and the Big Questions of Life." Teaching Philosophy 48.1 (2025): 37-45.
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