The Top 40

Actually the guys entire argument is kind of succinct:

In this paper, I take the position that a large portion of contemporary academic work is an appalling waste of human intelligence that cannot be justified under any mainstream normative ethics.

Part I builds a four-step argument for why this is the case, while Part II responds to arguments for the contrary position offered in Cass Sunstein’s “In Defense of Law Reviews.”

First, in Part I(A), I make the case that there is a large crisis of suffering in the world today. (Part I does not take me very long.).

In Part I(B), I assess various theories of “the role of the intellectual,” concluding that the only role for the intellectual is for the intellectual to cease to exist.

In Part I(C), I assess the contemporary state of the academy, showing that, contrary to the theory advanced in Part I(B), many intellectuals insist on continuing to exist.

In Part I(D), I propose a new path forward, whereby present-day intellectuals take on a useful social function by spreading truths that help to alleviate the crisis of suffering outlined in Part I(A).

Part I(A) is just another way of saying: "Here we are in 2015, with the world increasingly resembling a rabid goat rodeo hosted over a flaming pit of spikes and giant rattlesnakes,"

Which is more colorful, but equally true.

The quote is taken from:

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/216263/

In Part I(B) he says that the only role for the intellectual is for the intellectual to cease to exist.

Which rates a duh, from me.

Then he gets to Part I(C) in which he finds out that "many intellectuals insist on continuing to exist"

And so do welfare queens, Dude. And for the same reason. There is free money in it.

The conclusion is obvious, shut down the universities, fire the professors, and apply the endowments and real estate to reduce the national debt.

But, the author is a graduate student at the poster child of intellectual worthlessness, Harvard. what he wants is a berth on the gravy train, and his mind has been poisoned, so his conclusion is:

"intellectuals take on a useful social function by spreading truths that help to alleviate the crisis"

I translate this into he thinks intellectuals should be social justice warriors.

This conclusion is so wrong that he should be told: "I am sorry, that is the wrong answer, the correct answer is intellectuals should be trash collectors. But, thank you for playing. Please pick up your consolation prize, the board game version of our quiz show 'How to Cope with this Ctastrophe', on your way home. God Speed, and Good Luck."

"....apply the endowments and real estate to reduce the national debt."
==========================

Unfortunately, like the big boxes, walmarts, shopping malls, most of DC, etc., who is going to want them?

Overtly expensive architectural artifacts with very little real world value.

When the "endless dream bubble" pops everything disappears, starting with ASSumed values.

Yes, philosophy justifies war in a time of crises.

If you are caught by a peace before you have had an opportunity of doing so, I advise you to let it be, on your part, an armed peace. Prepare yourselves for a new struggle, with a new enemy, and let your preparations be not only as effective as you can make them, but also as notorious--
Tocqueville

All idealism is falsehood in the face of necessity--
Nietzsche

You can kill more people with a well intentioned peace than a well intentioned war--
Richard Fernandez

The unnatural, that too is natural.
You must either conquer and rule or lose and serve, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or hammer-
Goethe

JONATHON SWIFT
Every creature lives in a state of war by nature-
Jonathon Swift

Man’s life on earth is a war against malice--
Balatasar Gracian

A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts--
Madison

Let us recollect, that peace or war, will not always be left to our options.....to judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breasts, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and, that to model our political systems on speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of human character--
Hamilton

Can Philosophy Be Justified in a Time of Crisis?

Only after the shot. And then if one has the balls to look at the person holding the weapon. Otherwise NO!