At his new site, What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher, Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) has posted a long and wide-ranging interview with Michael Ruse (Florida State). The interview covers a lot of his personal life and how he got into philosophy, evolution and creationism and his testimony in the McLean versus Arkansas Board of Education lawsuit, interdisciplinary work, how sexism at Florida State may be tied to its emphasis on college sports, “lies that were told to me at my job interview,” and the future of philosophy. On the latter, he says:

Unless and until it makes itself more publicly relevant I see philosophy as shrinking, especially in this age when there is so much pressure to go for STEM subjects. Already the humanities are under fire and philosophy generally shoots itself in the foot. I think it should be much more in the public domain… Inwardly turned analytic philosophy seems to me to be ridiculous and somehow slightly immoral or if not immoral then shabby and not something fully mature people do, like having sex with a blow-up doll.

An interesting read!