If I were the czar of higher education that is not explicitly vocational, I would require every undergraduate to study philosophy. And if I were both czar and czarina, I would require all students to take two philosophy courses — one in their first year and another just before graduation.
At first blush, that requirement may seem bizarre, especially coming from me. I am a psychologist and, more broadly, a social scientist — not a philosopher or a humanist. Even more deplorably, I have never taken a philosophy course myself.
But I’ve been thinking about philosophy in recent months because of two developments. A year ago, Mills College eliminated its philosophy major and merged the department into an interdisciplinary unit — just one example of a growing number of institutions that have eliminated majors in certain humanities fields. On a more positive note, in January, the Johns Hopkins University won a $75-million donation to bolster its philosophy department. It occurred to me that a good use of that money would be to design new required courses in philosophy for the benefit of both philosophy departments and undergraduates in general.
The goal: to equip graduates with a philosophical armamentarium they could draw from -- and contribute to -- for the rest of their lives.
The kinds of courses I would require probably wouldn’t even have "philosophy" in the name, although they would all be taught by academics trained in that field. Indeed, except in certain explicitly liberal-arts contexts, I might well avoid the word entirely, since it would frighten some students (and, even more, their parents) and confuse others ("Is this about my personal philosophy?").
Instead, I would call the requirement something like "Big Questions of Life." Every student in their first year of college would choose one course from a list with titles like:
- "Questions of Identity" (Who am I? Who are we?).
- "Questions of Purpose" (Why are we here? What’s it all for?).
- "Questions of Virtues and Vices" (What is truth? What is beauty? What is morality?).
- "Questions of Existence" (What does it mean to be alive, to die, indeed, to be? Or not to be?).
Those are the questions!
Moreover, I would start with the students’ own individual and collective answers to the Big Questions of Life. But — and here is the crucial move — I would not end there...
Thank you so much for sharing this!! I could not agree more with this article. This world expects so much from us now at such a young age. Had classes Gardener envisions been offered and required for me to take freshman year, I think I could have had a better sense of what I wanted to do with my life or which direction to even venture towards. I changed my major more times than I can count. It took me 10 years to finish my undergraduate degree. I would take years off, then go back, change my mind, take a break, so on and so forth. I always loved the pursuit of knowledge and discovering new things, but I never really felt like I was finding what I was looking for. And I think it's because I didn't know myself yet. I didn't know who I was or why I was there. What was I trying to accomplish? And why? It took years for me to finally arrive to some sort of idea on what I wanted to do with my life but not until well into my late 20s and early 30s.
ReplyDeleteBecause of what I experienced, I not only agree to Gardeners article, but I think it needs to be implemented even earlier in our education system. Make Freshman and Seniors in High School take the same courses, but obviously at a High School level.
I remember having an extremely difficult time deciding on what to do after high school. I knew what my parents wanted, I knew what the norm was, I knew what my friends were doing, but I really had no idea where my life was headed. And that was terrifying. I didn't know where I would fit in in the world. I had no way of coping with these huge life changes that were about to take place. Courses like these would have at least given a kid like me a chance in the big world. Let's make this happen, I'm all in.
I agree, as a matter of fact, more liberal arts should be required. When I was at HP a friend from human resources told me STEM classes were great for teaching students how to build systems but were lacking the knowledge to know what or why they were building them.
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