Professional Philosophy and Its Myths
Rebekah Spera | David M. Peña-Guzmán
Philosophy / Social
In Professional Philosophy and Its Myths, Rebekah Spera and David M. Peña-Guzmán argue that academic philosophy is steeped in a host of myths that keep professional philosophers in a state of self-ignorance. Understood as unconscious schemas that shape philosophers' collective imaginary, these myths perform a dangerous ideological function within the discipline. Not only do they contribute to the overwhelming demographic homogeneity of the profession-ensuring that philosophy remains a holdout of white and male dominance-but they also prevent philosophers from seeing themselves as workers who, like all workers who sell their labor for a wage under capital, are subject to alienation, exploitation, and oppression. After outlining and critiquing these myths, Spera and Peña-Guzmán call upon philosophers to collectively invent new myths that will enrich rather than impoverish their psychic and professional lives. Through these new myths, they argue, a new philosophy-a “philosophy of the future”-will be born.
Rebekah Spera is postdoctoral fellow serving in the Writing Program at Emory University.
David M. Peña-Guzmán is associate professor of humanities and comparative world literature at San Francisco State University.
| Publication Date: |
25 June 2026 |
| Publisher: |
Bloomsbury Academic |
| Imprint: |
Lexington Books |
| ISBN-13: |
9781666939736 |
| Format: |
Paperback / softback |
| Page Count: |
144 |
| Weight (oz): |
7.2 |