被告知哲学仍然有用——对于那些喜欢吸收流行智慧以消除商业生活中的扯淡的科技高管来说——可能会让人希望哲学干脆死掉。But this philosophy-as-bullshit-killer approach to the discipline is currently spreading around Silicon Valley in part due to the influence of a man namedAndrew Taggart他拥有哲学博士学位。

In arecent profile inQuartz, Taggart explains the services he provides as a "practical" philosopher who provides counseling: "Philosophers arrive on the scene at the moment when bullshit can no longer be tolerated. We articulate that bullshit and stop it from happening. And there's just a whole lot of bullshit in business today."

但是这种盲目地推销一种“实用”的哲学——就像对压力大的企业家为y combinator做准备时的一种俗气的斯多格主义——最终只会反反复复地重复同样的刻板印象和偏见，而这些刻板印象和偏见使哲学最初成为一种讽刺漫画和缺乏吸引力的努力。它基本上把一些流行的、流行版本的哲学放在一边，这些哲学相当于一般的自助智慧的半优雅表达，然后排除了其他哲学，这些哲学本质上是毫无意义的智力漫游，你还不如做一个咖啡师。

To entertain the notion that there is a "practical" philosophy is to equally declare a category of "impractical" philosophy, and the all-too-common prejudices that structure our society's relationship to and understanding of the humanties in general inevitably end up banishing most of philosophy into the latter category.

Quartz, after all, has already adopted a new turn of phrase—"practical philosopher"—to describe figures like Taggart who "insist philosophical inquiry is the essence of an executive's job." Taggart's intervention for his clients, whom he charges around $100 an hour, is to lead them "down a path of inquiry that can lead to genuine understanding, better business decisions, and, eventually, happiness." Philosophy in this sense amounts to little more than a cool, new, glossy life-hack that you just might be able to afford if you're running a successful company or start-up.

No one is saying that philosophy belongs only to the academic elite, or that it shouldn't often be applicable to everyday experiences, or that philosophy can't help individuals think through existential crises. But it strikes me as deeply problematic to find with increasing regularity philosophy being commodified rather than being taken seriously as an incredibly rich body of literature that takes more than what a $100 hour-long session can deliver. Philosophy should be learned and applied, not denigrated to the level of tech bro self-help.

The Daily Nous, in their report ontheQuartzarticle, had the right idea by citing this comic fromSticky Comics: