Good ole Arlo, Thanks Arlo, for the reminders. Sometimes those who are frustrated with the Academy's shortcomings and mistakes do so because we care about it and wish it were better. Heck, none of us would honestly be here if it weren't for the Academics, up and down the sidelines, throughout our national history. So my hat's off to you and I'll try and mention, just to balance the polemic, that I've loved a lot of teachers in my time.
On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 1:19 PM, Arlo Bensinger <[email protected]> wrote: > [John to Matt] > > Academia despises new philosophy. More to learn! > > [Arlo jumps in] > Egads! This is about as far from my experience as I can imagine! The > Academy is constantly shifting and adopting new avenues of thought. While > any one "case" my appear to move slowly by those who wish it to move faster, > if you gander at the broad range of subjects in the Academy you'll see new > things added to the syllabus each semester (and old things disappear). At > PSU we now have a Bioethics Program (since you mentioned this), > http://bioethics.psu.edu/. > > I think, and its an understandable frustration, that things do not move as > quickly as they "should" at times. But I don't know what a good alternative > would be. The checks and balances in the system are supposed to inoculate > the Academy from adopting every fad and theory that comes along. And while > sometimes that can hinder the adoption of something we see as "good", it has > served the Academy well for quite a long time. > > Granted, no Univeristy can offer courses in *everything*, and even if they > could no student could take them all. The humanities (philosophy, > literature, etc.) are often relegated to non-mandatory "electives" (I could > bemoan the death of the true "liberal education", but I'll hold off). Even > departments offering said degrees are limited in scope and expertise. I > could imagine the budgetary woes if our little philosophy program here > suddenly had to teach a course (or more!) in every philosopher you could put > on a list. Decisions are often made by popularity, sadly, no department will > offer a course repeatedly if no one (or a very few) sign up for it. > > [John] > > In my view, the professional philosophers can keep their club, their secret > handshake and their esoteric squabbles. > > [Arlo] > We think of ourselves more as a "cabal" than a "club", per se. And how did > you find out about the handshake? > > > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
