You don't become a philosopher when you are a researcher at a philosophy department. If departments do this, they are mistaken. What you do is basically histo

You don't become a philosopher when you are a researcher at a philosophy department. If departments do this, they are mistaken. What you do is basically history of philosophy. You can be a philosopher / thinker at the same time, but you are not necessarily a philosopher if you are a researcher in philosophy, or you don't necessarily need to participate in academia if you want to do philosophy.