Thank you for this thoughtful and important article. I honestly think, however,it is — at least in part — a misconception. It is true that academic philosophy is far removed from our real world, a dusty subject largely studying itself. It strikes me, though, that it is like the difference between academic journalism that actually studies and teaches journalism on the one and actual prictical journalism on the other hand. The one is “out there” and the other takes place in the ivory tower. As I see it “Philosophy” happens absolutely everywhere. The better aspects of art and pop culture are oozing with philosophical questions: where are we? What the hell is going on? What’s the point of it all? What do we know? What CAN we know? And — what is the right thing to do from here? How do we cope? It’s everywhere, ranging from popular science according to Neill de Grasse Tyson et all to Harry Potter, From Star Wars and Star Trek to Disney Cartoons, and much more so in some of the heavy topical movies and even Netflix TV series. House of Cards. Designated Survivor. The OA. Even The Walkind Dead raises one philosophical question after the other. How do we cope with extreme situations? What actually is the essence and the purpose of life?
I really see philosophy — very concrete, applied and contemporary philosophy directly related to our — happening across the board of culture in all developed countries. Think of the recent Korean Movie “Okja” and, by the same producer, “Snow Piercer”. There are countless examples internationally (say — Cloud Atlas — and, of course, “The Philosophers”), and over here in Germany one of our most bestselling authors is Richard David Precht, a Ph.D. Philosopher writing sophisticated non-fiction books about the self, love, animal intelligence and ethics and the like, all of them being massive bestsellers over here. He also has a regular philosophy talk show with viewer numbers hovering around a million. That isn’t much compared to football games or blockbuster movies, but it also is not bad for a one-on-one late-night talk format about highly complex issues. There are a number of TV formats with philosophical topics, including literature forums and the evening talk show “Scobel”, hosted by buddhist philosopher and theologian Gert Scobel, who in the 80s wrote his Ph.D. about “Pluralism — towards a theory of complex systems”. This clearly and heavily philosophical show, usually featuring 3 esteemed scholars and writers as guests, draws an audience of about 700,000 to screens in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on the cross national station 3Sat.
I myself wrote books about the science and philosophy in Star Trek and Star Wars, which were favorably received by a wide audience, as was my philosophically leaning Novel “Rabenwelt” here in Germany, And Joostein Garders “Sophies Verden” (Sophie’s World / Sophies Welt), a novel about philosophy, was a massive success in the 1990s and has become a modern classic by now that is widely read. Not sure about America though.
So again — I do think that philosophy is not a lost skill — it is only going through a cultural evolution. Let’s face it: Many of the most valuable contributions to philosophy and spirituality were not made by philosophers or theologians. Neither Jesus nor Buddha held a Masters of Divinity degree, and Immanuel Kant was not a philosopher by training but a Geographer — a scientist that is. What do we know… what can we know… and where do we go from here?
My two eldest daughters (13 and 11) opted out of religion class upon entering highschool (Gymnasium) here in Germany. They chose “Practical Philosophy” instead. Yet the bulk of philosophy is encountered in other subjects — and in daily life and culture. “I have to do so much shit” my father said “I have no time to pet the dog”. And my daughter Sophie responded to her grandfather: “Why would you want to waste time with shit, when you could pet the dog instead?”
;-).