https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393117740844 Philosophy of the Social Sciences 1–15 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0048393117740844 journals.sagepub.com/home/pos Article Strawmen at the Symposium: A Response Robert Frodeman 1 and Adam Briggle 1 Abstract In this essay, we reply to the five commentaries offered of our 2016 book, Socrates Tenured: The Institutions of 21st Century Philosophy. We argue that, in a recursive fashion, those commentaries exemplify the thesis of our book – that contemporary philosophy has a blind spot concerning the philosophical priors of its status as an institution. That is, 20th and now 21st century philosophy has limited metaphilosophy to being an exclusively theoretical exercise, neglecting to also pursue a ‘philosophy of philosophy’ in its material, bureaucratic, and Marxist dimensions. After making these points in the introduction, the article is divided into three parts that deal, in turn, with comments that are facile, earnest, and provocative. We then conclude by noting the unintentional irony of our contemporary situation, where the vast majority of philosophy departments are inhabited by sophists rather than philosophers. Keywords Broader impacts, metaphilosophy, field philosophy; disciplinary capture First, our thanks—to Steve Fuller, for organizing this special issue; to the editors of Philosophy of the Social Sciences, for providing the venue for this discussion; and to our five readers, for taking the time to offer commentary on our book. Authors write in order to be read, and we are grateful for the opportunity to participate in a discussion of our work. Received 2 October 2017 1 University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA Corresponding Author: Adam Briggle, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA. Email: adam.briggle@unt.edu 740844POS XX X 10.1177/0048393117740844Philosophy of the Social SciencesFrodeman and Briggle research-article 2017