Thursday 21 April 2011

The Lifecycle of the Academic Philosopher: Flowchart

Because I am still tired out from a long post yesterday (or from being dumb and not ingesting any caffeine today), I have created another flowchart. This one includes color-coded stress-levels.

There will be a legitimate post tomorrow . . . probably.


(You can click on the image to make it larger).

P.S.  You can find me on twitter (@philosiologist) or facebook (Philosiologist Qed). I will most likely accept you as a friend/follow you, unless you appear to be the kind of person who only makes requests for numerical reasons or only posts philosophy quotes all the time. I do have some principles.

~The Philosiologist~
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16 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 April 2011 at 17:24

    I can't help but notice that, from a middle-of-the-road or ill-reputed school, it's not possible to go directly to a PhD program, but it is possible to go to a PhD program by way of Oblivion. I think that's probably pretty accurate.

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  2. Anne-Marie Schultz22 April 2011 at 17:21

    there's of course the post death reputation to worry about as well.

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  3. Aline23 April 2011 at 08:52

    I think you need an additional arrow going from "death" to "oblivion", which is where most of us philosophers really end up... ;)

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  4. Anonymous24 April 2011 at 14:56

    Unless you want to rule out reincarnation _a priori_, maybe you should add an arrow from "Death" back to "Undergraduate" to reflect the unsettling possibility of being condemned to philosophical _samsara_?

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  5. Anonymous24 April 2011 at 17:53

    In addition to low stress, becoming a lawyer evidently confers immortality. We are definitely in the wrong profession.

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  6. Anonymous25 April 2011 at 00:37

    I think there should be some circular arrows on the Post-doc and Non-Tenure boxes.

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  7. Anonymous25 April 2011 at 10:23

    this is inaccurate and stupid. it is inaccurate that a student needs to go to a prestigious school as an undergrad in order to get into a good phd program. go have a look at where students in leiter top 20 programs have done their undergrad work. pedigrees are fairly diverse, especially outside the top five. it is also inaccurate to list law as a sole alternative---statistics suggest that phil majors enjoy great success in a range of fields, and fair very well in business and med school admissions. it also misses the fact that many if not most students take a break before grad school, and that a number of philosophers have colorful resumes---auto mechanic, computer programmer, etc.

    it is stupid to suggest that people who leave the profession end up in oblivion, and it is stupid to suggest the professional positions and titles of a philosopher have much at all to do with her life-cycle. philosophers have lives, too.

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  8. katie25 April 2011 at 10:31

    Anonymous 10:23, Wow, you know, I thought I was describing the field and every person's situation with 100% accuracy. Thank you for your kind remarks, as they have made me see the error of my ways.

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  9. Anonymous25 April 2011 at 11:46

    Katie, I'm sorry if I offended you. After many years in this field, I'm very disappointed with the messages that we send to one another and especially to naive undergraduates about what it takes and what it is to be successful in philosophy. I hope no-one who hops here from Leiter's blog thinks that this flow chart represents the path available to her as a student of philosophy or a member of the profession, much less that it represents a person's life-cycle in philosophy. Careful philosophical work deserves the reputation that it has often had as a personally transformative line of work. Many people I know are doing very well in "oblivion"---it's a veritable metaphysician's paradise.

    Again, I apologize for the tone of my first comment.

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  10. katie25 April 2011 at 12:08

    Thank you.

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  11. Anonymous26 April 2011 at 17:51

    My guess is that Anonymous 10:23 is not the same person as Anonymous 11:46, as the second knows how to use capital letters.

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  12. Unknown26 April 2011 at 21:45

    hi katie, love the chart. one quibble: can i nominate law school as being higher stress than dark orange?
    :)

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  13. katie27 April 2011 at 06:49

    Bree, As I know you speak from experience, I might be willing to change it.

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  14. Leigh Duffy27 April 2011 at 13:40

    Does oblivion = adjuncting?

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  15. Anne-Marie Schultz11 May 2011 at 11:22

    This blog is really great. Keep up the good work.

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  16. A.V.Kothandaraman15 December 2011 at 01:22

    Dear Kat.

    Philosophy is a general terminology pertaing to all Living Beings to my Perception. As a matter of fact , if so we are considering the elite group of academician, the Perfect knowledge inspired will realise them the truth of nature as they may belong to any trade they are attached to.Then what, is my question ?

    Are they going to be using their knowledge of Philosophy for theirs or to the society.Please think over.

    Supposing on realisation and to the oblivion it is good for the individual or if they transfer the knowledge to the society a better way to understand the nature,its great.

    Chart shall be drawn with Authenticity rather another system of chart where in thease objectives have been acheived instead of being a generic form.This is only a suggestion.

    Great work
    Regards
    AVk

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