This article considers the state of the humanities, particularly in disciplines like philosophy, in light of the institutional structure of the university. Arguing that the bureaucratization of the contemporary university is thwarting learning and thinking, the author suggests that we begin to consider academic institutions through lenses less focused on the production of measurable knowledge and more attentive to the practice of teaching as an end in itself. He invites readers to imagine alternatives to current academic institutions, challenging us to envision better, collaborative institutional forms for thinking. The increasingly corporate academic model needs to move away from its instrumentalizing emphasis on output, this essay suggests, to acknowledge, instead, the pleasures of teaching, of learning, and of thinking.
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