What happens to philosophy?
This week’s article in the New York Times won’t be the last on the question of alternatives to college. There is a growing consensus that the college system is broken. It works well for graduates of top colleges and universities who go on to careers in investment banking or consulting (and who maybe pick up a little Plato on the way). It works much less well for the bottom of the vast educational pyramid — lower-prestige regional public colleges and community colleges.
While I think there is a great debate to be had on this point, I tend to agree that there should be other options for accreditation other than a traditional college degree. The challenge, I think, is to understand the extent of the loss of a 4-year education. That loss is probably not in marketable or technical skills but in the general education courses seen as standing between technically-oriented students and their degrees.
If large numbers of the population receive a technical education divorced from the traditional liberal arts, what will replace that education, and does it matter? I tend to think the impact will be minimal. Presenting these courses to populations that view the material as unnecessary seems counterproductive. However, in a world where a much larger group of people are not exposed to the core liberal arts, those topics would become even more so the purview of elites.
Perhaps that’s what makes projects like The Public Philosopher more necessary; demonstrating applied ethics and first principles to a larger population might be the only introduction to such principles many will ever receive.
-John
Related posts:
- Is exercise part of education?
- Public philosophy 4 kidz, continued
- Philosophy for second graders
- Finance, marketing, Plato
- Political Philosophy: The TV Show
ShareComments
Leave a Reply
