Julian Baggini

How do you imagine the largest gathering of philosophers in North America? The American Philosophical Association (APA) holds three annual conferences, for its eastern, central and Pacific divisions. The largest of these, held between Christmas and New Year, is the eastern division meeting, which attracts up to 5,000 philosophers.

"I think most of us think about the APA as a time to go and think and talk to philosophers, go to sessions and learn things," says Susan Finsen, a philosopher from California State University, San Bernardino. But from her tone and body language on this, the last day of the 2002 meeting in Philadelphia, you know the reality is somewhat different.

Like many people at the conference, Finsen’s APA has been dominated by hiring. "We came here to hire someone in non-western philosophy," she says, and this had prevented her from attending a single session of the actual philosophy papers programme, apart from being hauled in to chair a session at the last minute.

"What I hear a lot of is people walking around saying that they’re exhausted. Either they’re interviewing to death or have been interviewed to death," she says, sounding herself ready to acquiesce to the demands of the grim reaper. Finsen says she finds the "slave market" depressing as well as exhausting.

For the British, this is just one example of how they do things differently in North America. The scale of the conference is the most obvious difference.

"It’s busy, madly busy," says Tristan Palmer, senior commissioning editor at Continuum Publishing in London. "At a British philosophy conference you’re hard pressed to get more than a few hundred people."

The difference in scale is indeed striking. The size of the event means they are held in plush conference centres, with most delegates staying at the international hotel chains a mere skywalk away. This contrasts with the typical British conference, held on a university campus with delegates staying in drab student halls of residence.

But the scale is the most superficial contrast. The real difference is that in the UK, going to a conference means listening to papers. At the APA, many, if not most, people are out to do business, whether it’s hiring, getting hired, publishing a book or just making contacts.

"Loads of people here are saying they haven’t been to any of the talks," says Palmer. "They’re here to interview or be interviewed for jobs, or just to network and chat. It’s a peculiar set up in a way." And although he does discuss book projects at UK conferences, in the US "there’s a lot more focus on actually trying to get a contract."

It’s hard to understate just how deeply the business side of the conference permeates the whole atmosphere. Take the evening receptions, a chance ostensibly to relax at the end of the day over a drink. The reality is that universities hire tables at these receptions and use them for an extension of the day’s interviewing.

"Even at the receptions you’re just walking around looking for the people you needed to talk to or avoiding the people you know you’re not going to hire and feel really bad about and avoiding the people you didn’t hire from previous years, etcetera," says Finsen. "It’s just the worst nightmare social experience."

It’s not all gloom and doom, however. Jeff Dean, acquisitions editor at Blackwell, acknowledges that a lot of people attend because they have to. "But the interesting group is those who are here because they want to take part in the conference. They don’t have to be here, but they want to go and listen to some papers, meet colleagues. Academics, particularly early on in their career, move around the country a lot. This is an opportunity for them to see their old colleagues."

In an ideal world, that’s why everyone would be at the APA’s mammoth meetings. In the real world, it’s just comforting to know at least some people are there just for the sake of philosophy and philosophers.

For information on the APA’s divisional meetings see www.apa.udel.edu