It feels like their method of thinking is corrupted in some deep way? It's pretty subtle, but academic philosophers seem to think in ways that lead to *less* clarity, while framing this as virtue. It feels like they're "performing thinking"; doing things that resemble thoughts.
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My less-than-charitable interpretation is they're put into a system that incentivizes for prestige and respect; to be a good philosopher is to 'look like' a good philosopher, and good philosophers have dusty tomes and refer to elaborate concepts mere mortals can't understand.
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Focus is placed on figuring out what older philosophers thought, and using complicated, inaccessible terminology. I distrust this; if your words are complicated and inaccessible, your thoughts must be an absolute mess. Clarity keeps you grounded, but alas, it's not prestigious.
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Ofc I'm being kinda strong-language and hyperbole here, and #notallphilosophers; i know a few academic-background philosophers who seem pretty good at thinking, though *all* from that group had training or exposure to non-academic philosophy.
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I think if you take into account the near-historical role (or at least in post-WWII times) of academia as being more about social signaling, then this makes a whole lot of sense. The jargonizing of it all is basically meant to be a social marker, something exclusive.
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If your job was to escape from mazes of your own creation - it'd behoove you to make those mazes sound as complicated as possible.
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something definitely happened postwar (ww1+2);
prewar most recognized philosophers were polymaths and had interests in the natural sciences and mathematics, often making significant contributions in those fields
few if any were “just” philosophers
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I certainly agree that the incentives can lead academic philosophers to adopt ways of expressing themselves that run contrary to clear/good thinking. But I'm not so sure that this phenomenon should lead one to think that the average (analytic) philosopher is bad thinker.
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