ersatz yuppie academia

a physicist is never devoid of reasons for procrastination (hail to phd comics!). sometimes it is even issues of academia itself. here is my new favorite buzz word

the ersatz yuppie academic

it is a social type named by the M.E.T.U. (middle east technical university and no they don't train suicide bombers) sociology professor Hasan Ünal Nalbantoğlu, as an analysis tool for ethics or more correctly "ethos" of academia.

he uses this social type as a signifier for some hilarious psychologism of the middle aged academics of today, whom got their phds in late 70s and early 80s, and now continuing their "industry of academic production" in the "knowledge market," let's say. running from one deadline to the other, from one conference to conference. and most importantly nalbantoğlu asks, "is this the 'the thing to do' (das Tunliche)?"

hence the term ersatz translates as substitute (sugar substitute, milk substitute, "i cannot believe it is butter" substitute etc., i like the term "çakma" for the turkish translation), and the yuppie comes from the industrious and pretentious nature of their practice. you can reach the turkish article from his page, here.

the discourse makes use of many discussions in the literature that i wasn't aware of before. here are preliminary list of them for myself and for my buddy Herr Viola.

most interesting and fundamental one seems to be Weber's 1919 work of Wissenschaft als Beruf. well reading from the original german is always fun but for the challenge-impaired there is also the Science as a Vocation version of it.

Lukacs is widely referred to also:
* Die Eigenart des Ästhetischen
* Prolegomena zur Ontologie des gesellschaftlichen Seins

and last but not the least, of course Adorno:

* Das Schema der Massenkultur: Kulturindustrie (Forsetzung) [1942]
* Dialektik der Aufklärung
* Probleme der Moralphilosophie (1963)

"Ethik ist das schlechte Gewissen, das Gewissen über sich selber."