How to be a Successful Philosopher

In the works of the most successful contemporary philosophers, it is precisely their radical gestures - reversals of common sense and idiom, provocations and heresies - that have becomes standardized slogans and spectacles, meeting the demands of the marketplace of ideas for pre-packaged novelty and shock value.From the prophet of a bygone dystopia (think Agamben) and the dormo-spectacular performer (think Žižek), to the campaigner for a social cause (think Butler), How to be Successful in Philosophy undertakes a form of criticism through parody - whilst conveying, almost clandestinely, genuine philosophical reflections from within the highly standardised academic universe. What are the ingredients of a philosophical best-seller? And what do they tell us about the state of the discipline, and the world beyond?With lessons on how to 'play the game' from within, as well as suggestions of possible forms of resistance to the cult of academic celebrity, this is a subversive, sharp and often amusing critique of the state of play contemporary philosophy and the marketplace of ideas.