An eminent elderly researcher reflected on his achievements and talked about them at a study meeting. He was full of himself as he presented his university studies, the professors he met along the way, his postgraduate studies where he did his original research, his fieldwork and theses in the slums, and his encounters with the Buraku and Burakumin. He talked about how his research results have been in close contact with the urban underclass and minorities. The young researchers who listened to him praised his achievements

Indeed, he is a highly respected scholar, with an extremely large number of publications and an active field of work that spans the world. That's all well and good. But, in direct contrast to his achievements, the lives of the people his research field are becoming more and more exhausted. Discrimination and poverty are as bad as ever. Yet neither the professor nor his students reflected on this. Hence, the meeting ended up leaving a void.

Views in academia are diverse. However, our eminent scholar would have been well aware of the following words.

Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. (Karl Marx, 1845, Theses on Feuerbach)