Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A rhetorical question

I've just found out that the philosophy program at VMI is likely to be moved from the Department of Psychology & Philosophy to the Department of English & Fine Arts, which I'm guessing might be renamed. There could be some curricular revision on the horizon too, to emphasize rhetoric. So I wonder what a major in English/philosophy/fine arts/rhetoric should look like. There must be potential for something really good, but realizing that potential and making the major attractive to students might not be easy. If anyone reading this has suggestions or relevant experience, I'd be happy to hear about them.

14 comments:

  1. awesome, all plato and nietzsche all the time.

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  2. Wouldn't that be nice. With some Frege, Austin, Heidegger, Cavell, and Derrida for the occasional treat (or punishment, as the case may be).

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  3. I take it that you're familiar with the journal Philosophy & Rhetoric? I haven't followed it regularly, but I have come across some nice papers in it over the years.

    I also remember it as the journal that published one of only two negative reviews of Culture and Value that I know of, by D. D. Todd ("Just why the editors of Wittgenstein's Nachlass suppose that his undoubted philosophical abilities should authorize his cultural and theological maundering is a puzzle").

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  4. Thanks, Tommi. I don't know that journal, but I guess I'll have to start reading it.

    That's a strange review of Culture and Value. If someone like Wittgenstein (i.e. someone who might be regarded as a genius) gets it wrong about Mahler or Shakespeare, then that in itself is interesting to see. And when he gets things exactly right then that is surely worth reading. And given the room for disagreement about what Wittgenstein gets right and what he gets wrong, surely it's worth publishing remarks of both kinds.

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  5. there are some very good papers by don levi in 'philosophy and rhetoric' on rhetoric and on informal logic, i think any wittgensteinian would profit from them. plenty of other things in that journal, too.

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  6. Thanks, j. I like Don Levi, so I really will have to catch up on what I've been missing in Philosophy and Rhetoric.

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  7. It's interesting that the VMI don't seem entirely sure where to put philosophy. Is it a humanities subject - akin to literature - that serves as a platform for students to demonstrate their general reasoning and communication skills? Or is it a (social?) science that could potentially contribute new facts about the world?

    I'd kind of thought that over the last 60 years or so American philosophy had done its best to align itself with the latter camp. Is this wrong? I suppose, as usual, the picture is more complicated than such a simple distinction can provide.

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  8. Well, there's been some debate at The Stone and elsewhere about philosophy's relation to science. But these decisions at VMI aren't made by philosophers, nor by people who are likely to have been influenced by reading The Stone, etc. It's driven by administrative concerns mostly, I believe. As I see it, though, philosophy belongs with the likes of literature. So this move makes sense.

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  9. Oh, those administrators and their administrative concerns. My old department at the University of Helsinki is now the Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, which is starting to be almost beyond parody.

    And this is a stereotypical venerable research university, founded way back in 1640 (by the same Queen of Sweden who indirectly killed Descartes). Still, I guess it's better than the fate of (say) Swansea.

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  10. Yes, what happened at Swansea was bad. Looking at their website just now they list only two optional, introductory courses (and an MA in Wittgenstein Studies with a dead link). I'm going to be in the Department of Rhetoric, English Literature, Philosophy, and Fine Arts, but I don't expect it to be called that. Apparently Adam Smith used to be Professor of Logic and Rhetoric, so I'd settle for that name. I'm not sure how that would go down with the literature professors though. It's really going to be the department of reading, writing, and thinking, but I doubt it will be called that either.

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    1. Ah, Swansea... Anne MacLean taught me ethics at Newcastle. The Department was closed the year after I graduated and Anne moved to Wales. Never had much luck, did Anne.

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    2. That is bad luck. And they broke the mould after you left Newcastle, eh?

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    3. They certainly broke the mould for THAT type of philosophy department: small, informal and unashamedly biased towards so-called Ordinary Language Philosophy. It was run by Geoff Midgley (late husband of Mary) who'd studied under Ryle and had a disdain for publishing that would've made Wittgenstein himself raise an eyebrow. An excellent place, and a million miles away from today's Philosophy Factories.

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    4. It sounds great. Would never be allowed today.

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