It sounds like you have a pragmatic perspective. By synthesizing several perspectives on philosophical improvement, you can find a more robust measure of your skill. All our suggestions so far might be more powerful in combination. We might measure exposure and command of philosophical texts; an increase in self-perception of having a well-grounded perspective over time; an increase in the regard and, perhaps, status of one’s colleagues; and the provable aspects of one’s output. In combination, these seem like a reasonable aggregate measure of improvement.
It would therefore be interesting to know which of these metrics was not showing improvement in Lance’s grad program. Were the other students failing to achieve influence? Not building a command of previous literature? Perceiving themselves as ever-more-befuddled as they studied more? Working on unprovable problems, or failing to find proofs?
It sounds like you have a pragmatic perspective. By synthesizing several perspectives on philosophical improvement, you can find a more robust measure of your skill. All our suggestions so far might be more powerful in combination. We might measure exposure and command of philosophical texts; an increase in self-perception of having a well-grounded perspective over time; an increase in the regard and, perhaps, status of one’s colleagues; and the provable aspects of one’s output. In combination, these seem like a reasonable aggregate measure of improvement.
It would therefore be interesting to know which of these metrics was not showing improvement in Lance’s grad program. Were the other students failing to achieve influence? Not building a command of previous literature? Perceiving themselves as ever-more-befuddled as they studied more? Working on unprovable problems, or failing to find proofs?