All too often, philosophy is seen by the public, the
government, and colleges and universities themselves as expendable—easy targets
for funding cuts. This belief is misguided and sets us down a troubling path.
For one thing, philosophy and the humanities give schools a
lot of bang for their buck. Most philosophy departments do not require the large
research funds and expensive equipment that other fields may need, so their
budgets can reasonably be significantly smaller than departments needing such
resources. And yet with those smaller budgets, philosophy departments make a
sizeable impact. Philosophy teaches students the hallmarks of a quality
education: critical thinking, problem solving, writing, analysis, and argument
construction, to name a few. Philosophy considers the biggest questions there
are—and what is the academy for if not for asking big questions? And philosophy
students routinely outperform students of nearly all other disciplines on standardized
tests for postgraduate education such as the GRE and LSAT. Colleges and
universities that see philosophy and the humanities as expendable are sorely
mistaken.
Unfortunately, attacks on philosophy and the humanities are
sometimes cover for attacks on tenure, when universities see it as more
expeditious to eliminate an entire department rather than go through the
required process for reducing their number of tenured professors. This too, is
dangerous, as it is certainly not expeditious to deprive students of crucial
fields of study in the name of purportedly saving a few bucks or taking
advantage of an administrative loophole. (And we’ve already discussed the
important role of tenure in supporting academic freedom and guaranteeing due
process.)
When philosophy departments are threatened, the APA
responds, as we did earlier this year when the University
of Northern Iowa threatened deep and damaging cuts. Depending on the
situation, we can offer public statements of support, connect with those at the
department in question to provide resources and assistance, and reach out to
those proposing such cuts to advocate for the continuation of these important
programs. We will do whatever we know to do to protect philosophy and the
humanities against such attacks.
And we also participate in national-level advocacy for
philosophy and the humanities. The APA is a member of the National Humanities
Alliance and each year sponsors the NHA’s Humanities Advocacy Day in March. NHA
is currently planning its advocacy for the new Congress and newly re-elected
Obama administration, and I invite you to join the APA in participating in
those efforts—you should expect to hear from me with opportunities to make your
voice heard on Capitol Hill.
But advocacy has to happen from the bottom up as well. Philosophers
must fight for philosophy at the university level, not only for program
funding but also to improve the perception of philosophy for students not
intending to be philosophy professors. We all know the immense benefits
philosophy offers its students—benefits that are applicable and advantageous no
matter what career a student pursues. These benefits are sadly lost on many
students and their parents—and, unfortunately, sometimes school
administrators—which leads to lower demand for philosophy courses. What about
public awareness campaigns to demonstrate philosophy’s value? What about
marketing philosophy courses more widely? What about educating administrators about the benefits of philosophy before programs are threatened?
What else can we—the APA and the philosophical community—do
to advocate for philosophy?
As is standard practice on this blog, signed comments only: full name preferred, valid e-mail address required.
As this is
my final guest post, I want to take a moment to express my thanks to all those who have read my posts and shared feedback with me, both in comments and off the blog. I look
forward to continuing these discussions throughout my time with the
APA. And thanks, once again, to Brian Leiter for the opportunity to be a guest
on his blog this week.
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