I received this year’s edition of The Higher Education
Exchange today, with an interview of me by
David Brown. The interview starts with me worrying about academics
who pursue fame. I think that the desire for fame is a major motivation
in academia; in fact, status and fame seem to be professors’ main selfish
goals. (Curiosity is one of their main unselfish motives.) I’m interested
in this because I think that both the pursuit of fame and its attainment
can have distortingeven corruptingeffects on scholars. I also
think that fame goes to the already famous in a way that’s unfair and
that undermines meritocracy in the university. This would be a good subject
for a serious philosophical article, I believe.