Rise of Neoliberal Philosophy

Brandon Absher is associate professor of philosophy at D’Youville College.

This is an important book that should be part of a national conversation at APA conferences and in all philosophy departments. Professional philosophers ought to ask ourselves what kind of philosophy we support and when (not if) will marginalized, especially BIPOC faculty, move to the center to reconceptualize the discipline from below. As someone who hosts a large philosophy for children’s project at various educational sites, including a forest school for unschooled children, I was pleased to learn that such an initiative is validated as 'two-dimensional' philosophizing. In fact, as Brandon Absher argues, the Neoliberal University tolerates only one-kind: one-dimensional philosophy that performs its performativity for optimization of ROIs, which, of course, is nothing short of sophistry in our late capitalist era. With a stirring call for action, he deftly critiques the monochromatic content and demographics of most philosophy departments and implores us to engage in a pedagogy of discontent.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Philosophy in the Neoliberal UniversityChapter 2: The Performativity of Neoliberal PhilosophyChapter 3: The One-Dimensionality of Neoliberal PhilosophyChapter 4: Diversity and Neoliberal PhilosophyChapter 5: Toward an Alternative ParadigmConclusionBibliography