New Academic Year's Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions are, as everyone knows, completely ridiculous. But the idea of making a list of things to work on at the dawn of a new year might actually make sense when it comes to academia (especially since our jobs kind of depend on being better teachers more so than being better about not eating junk food). So in that spirit here’s a list of some things I will be working on improving this academic year.

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Gaza and Navel Gazing

My question, then, is this: Shouldn't philosophers be able to bring more to an ethical dilemma than a highly intellectualized version of the debate that was already taking place before they intervened? The reason this is important is because philosophers have, from the very beginning of philosophy, been accused of doing nothing more than "navel gazing," of asking and answering questions that are of interest only to other philosophers rather than providing any practical benefit to the world outside of philosophy. Or, as Karl Marx put it, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it."

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