I have actually repeatedly heard the same complaint from professors. They don't want to read a bunch of 20 page papers when the standard in the field for (techn

I have actually repeatedly heard the same complaint from professors. They don't want to read a bunch of 20 page papers when the standard in the field for (technical) publications is like 4. So they put maximum page limits on, which makes vastly more sense all around. Maybe in philosophy it's necessary because the standard media is books or long essays so making sure you can play the "game of bullshitting" is a useful vocational skill in that field, to make your text long enough for people to buy your book. No offense intended to philosophers, I love philosophy. But practical considerations like earning a living from a philosophy degree are perhaps different. It's kind of hard to sum up a new philosophical treatise in four pages since you'd probably take that long just to define your version of what "good" means.