[MD] Academic philosophy

[ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR]

[DMB]
It may be hard to see through all the slander and insults (against those who "are philosophizing poorly, dogmatically, even sociopathically," and "these sociopaths" who are running a "scam," and "the swindlers" who "participate in a great confidence game") but Auxier is really just complaining about analytic philosophers. 

Analytic philosophy is (or was) the dominant style of philosophy in English-speaking countries in the 20th century. It was born as a reaction against the kind of Hegelian Idealists like Bradley and Royce. It effectively killed idealism early in the century, which probably explains why Auxier has an axe to grind and why John would enjoy Auxier's grinding noises. 

[Arlo]
You may be right. I was never that interested in Bertrand Russell's ideas to take a course covering his ideas. So maybe this is how analytic philosophers think. I will say, however, that I did take a course covering Wittgenstein (listed as an analytic philosopher on Wikipedia), and the professor was not at all like JC-per-Auxier suggests. I never got a sense that it was supposed to be 'impersonal', but this was a course mostly about his ideas concerning language, and maybe that's why (Wittgenstein argued that language could not be separated from the reality it described). Is it even possible for language to be impersonal? (Don't answer that, I know the idea of a Universal Grammar still floats around out there.)

But, yeah. This is hardly representative of philosophers, or the academy, in general. And its not even original. Pirsig made the same criticisms to 'objectivity' in the, then, dominant Boas tradition. However, in the years since this 'objectivist tradition' has waned. Raging against Boas in 2014, as an exemplar of all anthropology (or even the entire academy) would be absurd. Sure, there are still Boasians around, but you have an increasing presence of Tomaselloans, and others in a broad spectrum of cultural anthropological positions, many of who look to Bourdieu, not Boas, as a guide.