Abstract

The appearance of so many works in the last decade that fall under the banner of “public philosophy” has done much to enhance the idea that one can engage in public philosophy and still be a first‐class scholar, and even to broaden our understanding of scholarship to include public engagement. Philosophy abandoned its concern with the “meaning of life” and focused most of its attention on the “meaning of words.” Public philosophy has been the subject of a great deal of criticism. There are questions about the institutional and societal challenges that face public philosophy. Recognizing that most of the people – at least so far – who do public philosophy, are academics, it is an important question how much public philosophy should count toward getting a job, tenure, or promotion within the profession of philosophy.