The War on Philosophy

Over recent year's philosophy programs in academia are being cut due to funding and different administration reasons. This war on philosophy isn't just directed at philosophy but many liberal arts programs across the nation. I'll stick to calling it the war on philosophy since that’s what I will be focusing on in this post. The most recent cuts to programs were in April with Western Oregon cutting its philosophy department and Laurentian University cutting its philosophy program a few days later. The big question we should be asking is why is philosophy unimportant enough to cut? Some folks may say that since it doesn’t set us up for a specific career path and that it is “useless” because of this. To that, I say that philosophy helps us become better well-rounded people who can find meaning easier in life. And if like most people we equate meaning with happiness then philosophy majors can be unequivocally happier than those who don’t study philosophy. This herd mentality of wanting to go to school to get a job and live within society is caused by the perpetuation of studying things that keep us doing the same things that our parents and the people did before us. However, I'm not saying that you can't go to school to study philosophy and then get a job and live within society like everyone else but philosophy helps us build our critical thinking skills which could lead us to think creatively and thinking we could live outside society or off the grid because society makes a lot of people unhappy. I postulate then that if we were to go the opposite route and try to spread philosophy to more people and more schools then we would have more people thinking creatively and could produce innovative solutions to unfamiliar problems faster. For the twenty-two years I've been alive the focus on education has always been geared to stem and science but many people fail to realize is that science can be broken down to what we used to call natural philosophy which is now our modern-day science. So, if we were to say that philosophy has progressed enough to envelope what we now call science which is our most important education focus why should we eliminate the discipline that created modern-day science. Science is always working on big problems some of them today involving artificial intelligence and I believe we should have as many academics in as many disciplines as possible working on these questions involving AI because the danger that can come from a complex AI are great but if we have people analyzing from tech to cognitive scientists to philosophers, we can hopefully get the best answers and solutions then if we were to just use one discipline and academics only from that discipline. This makes me believe that a war on philosophy is a war on diversity and critical thinking.

Protecting philosophy should be of utmost importance because it helps with diversity in thought and helps us live a good, examined life. Some suggestions I think would be helpful in this war against philosophy would be to start teaching philosophy to children at a young age, so the next generation doesn’t lose out on the value of philosophy. While in other countries some schools teach philosophy in grade school, I'm viewing this from my U.S perspective where I have yet to see a grade school or high school offer philosophy or even make it, so we have to take a philosophy course. Giving young students and young philosophers the tools to understand existence and think critically at a young age can be very vital to the future of society. It can help scientific progress, political progress, and help build a solid foundation for the next generation so that they are equipped to deal with the problems that will be vital to their future on earth or potentially another planet. Another way we could combat the war on philosophy would be to try to get philosophy into the public realm whether it be through normal media or social media try to show the public the value that philosophy has and can have on one's life. This is what I attempt to do by writing on this blog by entering the public realm with philosophy and trying to educate and teach others the importance of philosophy and curiosity. While I follow some philosophy creators on social media it may not be as easy for others to find these creators because this isn't the type of information, you're usually looking for on social media but if you enjoy my content and would like some philosophical content creator recommendations, please let me know. And as always stay curious!