Students are swayed in the direction of their supervisors’ views due to their persuasive power or charisma, or because they sense that this is prone to improve their career prospects. Even students who started out in earnest, set on discovering the truth of some philosophical matter, may slide into defending views that are suspiciously similar to the views of their teachers. There is a win-win situation here: the students secure a career, and their teachers that their work and reputation live on.
(Ingmar Persson, "The Fundamental Problem of Philosophy: Its Point," Journal of Practical Ethics 6 [June 2018]: 52-68, at 59)
Note from KBJ: Academics, like everyone else, are animals.
