Oh, come on. "Eurocentric" philosophy is one of the foundations of modern civilization. The same can't be said of any of the listed traditions. The author complains that departments are resolutely "Eurocentric" when the whole world is scrambling to become more European, and with good reason.
If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
81–90 of 208 posts
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#82I'm inclined to think that university departments are really sets of social norms: agreements about what the canonical texts are, ideas about what methods and tools should be used, and, of course, the kinds of phenomena they study. Among other things.
So it's hard turn up at the philosophy department and insist they start teaching Indian philosophy because no one there will really know about it. It's not the intellectual project the staff at the department have elected to study. You could, and I think should, nudge them to broaden their cultural horizons where possible. Links with other cultures should absolutely be explored. (This is a lovely short podcast on Hume and this possibility he was responding to Buddhist thought - http://philosophybites.com/2013/09/alison-gopnik-on-hume-and...)
At the same time, philosophy departments have a problem because - at least for analytic philosophy - it's a huge hierarchy of interlocking thoughts that you can only access by learning a large body of fundamentals. So any attempt to broaden the curriculum will necessarily prevent students getting to many of the most interesting ideas within the discipline. Especially because such a wide variety of though is colloquially designated philosophy. What is the connection between the Bhagavad Gita and Russell and Whitehead? Students would end up knowing virtually nothing about everything.
As for gender equality in philosophy departments - that's a whole other issue. Of course they should strive for gender equality. But they can't stop teaching the thoughts of dead white men to achieve it any more than the physics department ought to stop teaching Newton to increase diversity. You can't ask a whole subject area to radically shift it's focus to ensure balanced demographics in the students taking it. That's not fair to anyone.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#83Good science makes good predictions and often leads to useful tech. There's an obvious external arbiter of quality. Same goes for math, where more or less everyone has agreed on ZFC.
Good philosophy... is whatever other philosophers decide is good. No external arbiter of quality. Lots of disagreement about foundational assumptions (certainly nothing like the agreement we have in math).
This looks like a very clear-cut case of rent-seeking by an insular cultural institution.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#84They wish to include non-European traditions of philosophy into academic philosophy. "Jay L. Garfield is - - the author of “Engaging Buddhism: Why It Matters to Philosophy.” Bryan W. Van Norden is -- the author of “Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy.”" "Give us more money. We like money."
This is akin to saying that when E.O. Wilson argues fervently that natural selection is real, he is not to be trusted because he is employed as a biologist.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#85They wish to include non-European traditions of philosophy into academic philosophy. "Jay L. Garfield is - - the author of “Engaging Buddhism: Why It Matters to Philosophy.” Bryan W. Van Norden is -- the author of “Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy.”" "Give us more money. We like money."
Well, who doesn't float their boat?
Good point.
But if you are expert of your own field and wish to promote it, you should be able to present extremely well thought out argument in favor. The article is such hand waving that I would forgive it to independent reporter, not these guys.
It's possible that the argument is so long you practically would have to write a book about it. Just like Jay L. Garfield did. But now I have no chance of knowing if his argument is good without giving him money. Except trusting some other source rating his book.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22826414-engaging-buddhis...
Now I'm intrigued. Sounds like it might be worth reading.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, the authors acknowledge this counterargument, but they do not offer a substantial refutation of it. They try to confuse their readers by equating a historical examination of philosophy with philosophy itself. id=whatshisface is correctly addressing how this argument applies to philosophy.
Whathisface is arguing from unsupported assertion as much as TFA is.
Whathisface is commenting on an article. You expect a counter article? I think the original article has a higher burden of evidence for supporting it's claims.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#87is it really that weird if a philosophy department located in say, belgium, emphasizes belgian philosophers and philosophers from surrounding areas (like france and germany). philosophy is not really a science and is subjective. thus, a comparison to math (or physics) does not make sense. given the tribal nature of humanity, it just makes sense that departments emphasize those famous philosophers from their tribes. i…
This is correct but if you want people to pay attention to you and e.g. buy your book the current dominant marketing/political strategy is claiming some ineffable moral inferiority of western culture or western people ("dead white guys") and afterwards apparently people give you cash or at least web traffic.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#88It 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…
The author addresses your exact point in the article. "Others might argue against renaming on the grounds that it is unfair to single out philosophy: We do not have departments of Euro-American Mathematics or Physics. This is nothing but shabby sophistry. Non-European philosophical traditions offer distinctive solutions to problems discussed within European and American philosophy, raise or frame problems not address…
First, you pose a false dichotomy. The cultural origin of ideas from any school of thought, whether Asian, African, or European schools of thought has absolutely no bearing on whether they are true.
All Universities should seek to teach the truth. Therefor, the cultural backgrounds of the author is irrelevant, except to the extent it forms a background to understand the author's ideas.
Also, we already call it "Continental Philosophy" as opposed to "Analytical Philosophy." If she wants to call it "European Continental Philosophy," who cares?
It's flatly wrong, since as she rightly points out, Arab and Asian philosophy have had profound influences on Western thinkers throughout history.
Also, has she not taken a philosophy course lately? Aristotle through Kant is pretty much considered a given, or go back to the survey level. Every one of the concepts she mentioned will be in any survey course of global philosophy, as simply as if she plucked them from such a syllabus.
People really pushing the limits are digging deeply into the Muslim Great Age, in particular Ibn Khaldun and his school of thought (since the great works of Ancient Greece came back to Europe through their preservation in Muslim libraries and schools), or off attempting to create a precise definition of "utility."
Finally, I hate this type of nonsense PC battle about names.
It distracts from real honest to God issues of economic and social diversity: an overhaul of the unequal justice system, an end to police brutality, restrictions on the use and duration of criminal records, redistribution of capital from the the top 1%, equal pay for equal work, and immigration reform all come to mind.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#89It 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…
>Nobody would ever dream of arguing against eurocentrism in number theory. There are strong cultural biases that show up in the history of mathematics. For instance the English mathematics community preferred Newton's notation over Leibniz due to a Anglocenteric bias in English mathematics community despite Newton's notation being clearly inferior. As wikipedia says: >"The priority dispute had an effect of separating…
First of all, it wasn't "clearly inferior" historically. Liebniz' arguments why it was valid were heavily based on infinitesimals and monadology, which were not known at the time to be valid. (In fact, many of Liebniz' arguments weren't valid, although the conclusions turned out to be.)
Secondly, if biases exist, one need not argue for diversity in order to achieve it. Liebniz notation didn't win because someone argued that anglos were biased and diversity was needed, it won because mathematical arguments demonstrated it was better.
Unfortunately the authors of this piece don't actually make that latter argument.
Re: If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is
#90There is no denying that, both in the authors assigned in standard curricula and in the make-up of graduate students and faculty, white males are disproportionately represented in philosophy departments in the U.S. and Europe. I would simply like to register the fact that, among current graduate students and (typically young) professors at the departments with which I am familiar (basically the Leiter top 30), this i…
Disproportionate to what? What is the expected proportioning that you think the make-up of grad students in the west violates?