Two and a half years ago the Chronicle of Higher Education posted a biting discussion of philosophy as practiced as an academic speciality. Here's the URL: http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2014/07/16/wanted-a-future-for-philosophy/ I doubt much has changed in the intervening period. If I'm wrong, and something has changed, I would be happy to be better informed by a commenter here! Or if the authors were painting an inaccurate picture in the first place, I welcome readers of Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed who might tell me so. Here is the bottom line of that article: Too many graduate students chasing tenure-track jobs that are themselves disappearing; rising societal demands for accountability coupled with budget cuts; the loss of faith in ‘higher knowledge’; and an insular philosophic culture, in which professors write nearly exclusively for one another. William James himself never sought a Ph.D. in philosophy. The university system was v...