Liberal arts on chopping block @ colleges

[Cypress]

I was not even a liberal arts major, but I cannot imagine a university which does not have history, philosophy, religious studies departments.

Adrian College Attempts to Eliminate History, Philosophy, Religion, Theater Departments

Adrian College President Jeffery Docking has reversed his earlier decision to eliminate the college’s philosophy, history, religion, theater, and leadership departments in 2021. The small liberal arts college in Adrian, Michigan announced the cuts last month in a letter to the Adrian College Association of Professors. This week’s reversal comes after “passionate feedback” from alumni, who felt the departments selected for elimination were essential for the college’s liberal arts mission.

Humanities departments are under incredible pressure at colleges and universities around the country. Even before COVID-19 added additional budget constraints, disciplines like philosophy and history were being scrutinized and compared unfavorably to STEM, business, and economics.

Shane Courtland is managing director of academic relations at the Institute for Humane Studies and holds a PhD in philosophy from Tulane University. In response to Adrian College’s surprise reversal of its humanities cuts, Dr. Courtland noted that philosophy and other humanities disciplines are becoming “increasingly endangered” at colleges facing budget constraints.

“But when you cut some of these departments, you cut away at the essence of a liberal education,” he said.

https://theihs.org/blog/adrian-colleges-announcement-on-philosophy-history-depts-is-encouraging/

 

[Cypress]

If all you want to learn is just enough engineering and technology sufficient to get a job, we could just have vocational schools for that.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

American civilization is in total freefall.
It's disingenuous to feign surprise at anything anymore.

The way things are going, perhaps Waterworld can't come fast enough.

 

[Cypress]

American civilization is in total freefall.
It's disingenuous to feign surprise at anything anymore.

The way things are going, perhaps Waterworld can't come fast enough.

Prior to world war 2, before USA took global dominance in science education, a continental European education was an expectation, even for physicists. Einstein, Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Heisenberg got a broad continental European education including philosophy, humanities, and history of science.

I am think that partly explains why they were such creative thinkers.

After WW2, America became the global epicenter of higher science education and research, and with that USA brought the Anglo-American tradition of strict empiricism and a general disdain for the continental European approach to higher education in the sciences.

 

[Cypress]

Quantum mechanics and Hinduism

Bohr, Schroedinger, Heisenberg were very interested in Eastern philosophy and they supposedly regularly read the Vedas and the Upanishads.

Quantum mechanics seemngly suggested to them that the reality we observe by sensory perception is just an illusion projected onto our consciousness.

That dichotomy between illusion and reality led them to an interest in Hinduism, which is based on the tenets that observable reality is an illusion which conceals an underlying reality.

^^ That is the kind of deeper contemplation which generally comes from a classical continental European education. The Anglo-American emphasis on logical empiricism generally precludes this kind of deeper philosophical thinking about the nature of scientific knowledge.

 

[BidenPresident]

I was not even a liberal arts major, but I cannot imagine a university which does not have history, philosophy, religious studies departments.

Similar trend in England. Unless a university requires a philosophy class or another humanities class, kids will not take those classes.

 

[Cypress]

Similar trend in England. Unless a university requires a philosophy class or another humanities class, kids will not take those classes.

I believe it,
that is why I contrasted the Anglo-American laser focus on an analytical logical empiricist approach, with the broader, more humanistic continental European education favored by the Germans and French

 

[BidenPresident]

I believe it that is why I contrasted the Anglo-American laser focus on an analytical logical empiricist approach, with the broader, more humanistic continental European education favored by the Germans and French.

I don't know about enrollment in philosophy in Germany or France. Do you have stats on that?

 

[Cypress]

I don't know about enrollment in philosophy in Germany or France. Do you have stats on that?

I don't know, and by the 21st century, things might have changed.

It's just that a traditional Continental humanistic education favored by the French, Germans, Austrians, et al historically contrasted with the analytical empiricism predominant in Britain and North America

 

[Geeko Sportivo]

This is more of a REPUBLICAN Brain Fart no different than the banning of French Fries, PBS, Robert Redford, and too many others to list.

The Trumptards hate the word Liberal- and everything associated with it- SO THEREFORE THEY HATE LIBERAL ARTS ALL OF A SUDDEN!

They also hate the terms democracy and democratic now- BECAUSE IT SOUNDS TOO MUCH LIKE DEMOCRAT! And we already know how much they hate them.

Can we just say TRUMPTARD here! Petty, hateful, and foolish comes to mind!

 

[BidenPresident]

Here is an article from U of Michigan about a controversy in the humanities. Not sure if it would suppress enrollment, but worth thinking about.

"Nearly 700 University of Michigan faculty members signed an open letter dated Oct. 21 asking for School of Music, Theatre & Dance Professor Bright Sheng to be reinstated as professor of his undergraduate composition seminar less than a month after he stepped back from the course. The letter also calls for the University to issue a public apology on his behalf.

The letter, sent to SMTD Dean David Gier, University President Mark Schlissel and Provost Susan Collins, comes after Sheng showed a 1965 version of the film “Othello” in which the lead actor appears in blackface. Some students said Sheng did not properly contextualize the racism in the film before he showed it."

https://www.michigandaily.com/news/...td-professor-bright-sheng-to-be-reinstated/?/

 

[Cypress]

This is more of a REPUBLICAN Brain Fart no different than the banning of French Fries, PBS, Robert Redford, and too many others to list.

The Trumptards hate the word Liberal- and everything associated with it- SO THEREFORE THEY HATE LIBERAL ARTS ALL OF A SUDDEN!

They also hate the terms democracy and democratic now- BECAUSE IT SOUNDS TOO MUCH LIKE DEMOCRAT! And we already know how much they hate them.

Can we just say TRUMPTARD here! Petty, hateful, and foolish comes to mind!

99 times out of a hundred a Deplorable who complains about students majoring in basket weaving has never actually set foot on a college campus.

 

[Cypress]

I don't know about enrollment in philosophy in Germany or France. Do you have stats on that?

This article is nine years old, but it suggests that Philosophy has been a part of French public education since the Napoleonic era, and French students are taught to try to think philosophically.


Are French students taught to be more philosophical?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.fr...exams-philosophy-europe-curriculum-university

 

[BidenPresident]

This article is nine years old, but it suggests that Philosophy has been a part of French public education since the Napoleonic era, and French students are taught to try to think philosophically.


Are French students taught to be more philosophical?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.fr...exams-philosophy-europe-curriculum-university

I think you are right. In fact, I had a friend from Poland who also said they all took philosophy in high school.

 

[Matt Dillon]

If all you want to learn is just enough engineering and technology sufficient to get a job, we could just have vocational schools for that.

STFU bitch, how many college credits did you earn?

 

[Lightbringer]

I was not even a liberal arts major, but I cannot imagine a university which does not have history, philosophy, religious studies departments.

You should have seen this coming from a mile away. I did. This started 30 years ago.

 

[Cypress]

I think you are right. In fact, I had a friend from Poland who also said they all took philosophy in high school.

Alex de Tocqueville said back in the 1830s that America's approach to science and higher education was largely pragmatic and utilitarian. I do not think philosophy, the humanities, the liberal arts were ever held here in the same esteem they were in continental Europe.

 

[BidenPresident]

Alex de Tocqueville said back in the 1830s that America's approach to science and higher education was largely pragmatic and utilitarian. I do not think philosophy, the humanities, the liberal arts were ever held here in the same esteem they were in continental Europe.

Well, Americans invented the philosophy of pragmatism with Dewey, James, and Peirce--and Rorty.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

It isn't liberal arts that's the problem, it's the professors that teach it...

 

[Cypress]

You should have seen this coming from a mile away. I did. This started 30 years ago.

This trend goes back way more than 30 years.

My brother loved history, but he felt he had to settle for an engineering major when he started university in the late 1970s.