11–20 of 208 posts
Let's replace philosophy with medicine and the BS becomes apparent. So called Non-western philosophy is often a misnomer - it's actually religion.
I suppose we could, but this leaves a pretty thin curriculum.
> Instead, we ask those who sincerely believe that it does make sense to organize our discipline entirely around European and American figures and texts to pursue this agenda with honesty and openness.
> We therefore suggest that any department that regularly offers courses only on Western philosophy should rename itself “Department of European and American Philosophy.”
In my view, up until this point, a very rational proposal, in line with the change from "Computer Science" to (for instance) "Information Technology" in courses that skip the whole mathematical foundation to focus exclusively on the applied technological disciplines.
However, the follow up of the reasoning sounded too judgmental with an unnecessary passive aggressive tone:
> This simple change would make the domain and mission of these departments clear, and would signal their true intellectual commitments to students and colleagues.
Coincidentally, I recently had lunch with the department chair of CMU's Philosophy department. Like many people, I assumed philosophy was all about (in his words) "the dead white men". What I was calling philosophy was really the "history of philosophy". I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that what CMU's philosophy department _actually_ teaches is logic, and philosophy of scientific research and math, and that…
At my university philosophy was only offered joint with another topic, such as Maths and Philosophy or Politics and Philosophy. The idea being, I think, to make sure the thinking had an object to study. What surprised me was, as it seems for you, that they basically only studied philosophy from the last fifty or hundred years. It's not really about Plato or Aristotle.
Coincidentally, I recently had lunch with the department chair of CMU's Philosophy department. Like many people, I assumed philosophy was all about (in his words) "the dead white men". What I was calling philosophy was really the "history of philosophy". I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that what CMU's philosophy department _actually_ teaches is logic, and philosophy of scientific research and math, and that…
These authors conveniently cite a stat that says how many professors are not teachers of "non-Western philosophy" (i.e. the History of Philosophy, a subject that students should know quite well before they even enter college, and very few professors should have to waste their time with). Unfortunately for any semblance of an argument worth publishing, that stat is horribly misleading in the context of knowing all of the other philosophical specialties that exist, which could be called not-non-Western. I wish the NYT would stop giving conservatives such effective fuel with which to characterize progressives as illogical shills.
Let's replace philosophy with medicine and the BS becomes apparent. So called Non-western philosophy is often a misnomer - it's actually religion.
So by this logic are we also removing Augustine, Aquinus, Decartes, Kant and the dozens of other canonical western philosophers whose arguments were substantially religious in nature? I suppose we could, but this leaves a pretty thin curriculum.
That would be very nice, actually. If your philosophizing requires the supernatural to make sense, it's not very good.
It feels like the author has missed the point of philosophy entirely. If some Chinese philosophical paper is very good, it should be evaluated on its merits and folded in to an appropriate course for that topic. Philosophers believe at least, that they are doing work more along the lines of mathematics than underwater dance (that is, searching for truth). Nobody would ever dream of arguing against eurocentrism in num…
It feels like the author has missed the point of philosophy entirely. If some Chinese philosophical paper is very good, it should be evaluated on its merits and folded in to an appropriate course for that topic. Philosophers believe at least, that they are doing work more along the lines of mathematics than underwater dance (that is, searching for truth). Nobody would ever dream of arguing against eurocentrism in num…
All the advantages they presume to exist by doing so will surely accrue to them, and others will follow suit in time.