Philosophy outside of academia?

As someone nearing the end of my bachelor’s degree in philosophy, I believe it’s important to discuss why philosophy should be done outside of academia as well as in academia. While academia benefits from organized learning and a structured program led by educated professors in said discipline it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Academia is gatekept by money since to attend university, one must have the cost of tuition as well as the means to live while also forking out the money to this school. Under these circumstances a lot of people can’t afford to attend school, while also being able to survive, so for these people, academia can be seen as a luxury.

Speaking from personal experience and finishing up my college bachelor’s degree in philosophy and accumulating the debt I did just from my bachelor's alone. It does put my ambition for becoming a philosophy professor into a bind. This is because I know that my amount of debt is going to increase even more if I get accepted into grad school and end up going. So, in my instance I need to weigh the pros and cons of academia and whether it's worth it to pursue another degree. I believe at least in my case that I would like to acquire a higher-level education in philosophy even if I am not lucky enough to land a job in the philosophical sector of academia. This is because even if I don’t get to teach students philosophy the old-fashioned way (academic way) I would like to teach people and help them on their philosophical journey which is what I’m attempting to do with these blog posts and well as my YouTube videos.

Now if you’re in this category of future wisdom seekers that don’t have the money to attend university and enter into academia, I urge you to consider reading some philosophy for the intrinsic and extrinsic value it offers. While you may not get the value that some philosophy professors offer as well as the value of the “college” experience your independent study can be heavily assisted by the advancement of technology and the internet. The resources that the internet offers especially for philosophy are immense from internet encyclopedias and lectures to podcasts and YouTube videos. So, while you’re wrestling to understand primary sources of texts you can use these resources to help guide you to an understanding of the reading.

Some advantages to studying outside of academia are you can research and study exactly what you want to study and not have a projected plan from a professor. People studying outside of academia potentially are more likely to adjust their beliefs as they receive and understand new concepts because they potentially aren’t being scrutinized by other academics for holding a belief that isn’t “popular”. While the scrutinization by academics in the academic field could be seen as a necessary good to get closer to objective truth or “more” truth. I have noticed that sometimes it's not just constructive criticism it gets personal, since philosophy as a discipline is a bringer of personal value as you build up your belief system, some people potentially can take constructive criticism as “shots” at their beliefs or sometimes people just find opposing views to theirs offensive and so instead of academics engaging in Socratic dialogue they get personal and offensive.

Some people try to “gatekeep” philosophy which essentially means that they try to keep philosophy away from people who aren’t involved in academia. While I do not condone nor include myself with these people, I believe curiosity to be a virtue and should be brought to light in those of us who lost that spark. If you’re someone who believes they will never study philosophy at the academy level this shouldn’t deter you from never studying, it. Philosophy can be used as a therapy, a psychological development tool, and much more. Most adults once they start to analyze the beliefs, they were raised on end up in a spiral due to the fact the foundation of beliefs they were raised on is in shambles. Philosophy gives you the tools to decipher and analyze many foundations and belief systems to figure out what you believe to be correct and ultimately help you find meaning in a new foundation that you can build upon through further study regardless if it’s in academia or not.