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Sunday, February 08, 2004
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SUNDAY KIND OF POST
II The indispensable organization FIRE, which attacks speech codes and defends free speech for professors and students, asks me to be concerned about the recent treatment of a philosophy professor at a college in Ohio. This professor’s department is making his life miserable because on his syllabus for Introduction to Philosophy the man tells his students to “please be aware of where I am coming from. [I am a] committed Catholic Christian philosopher.” FIRE sees nothing wrong with this sort of candor, which it compares to a feminist disclosing her ideological commitments in class and on syllabi, and the organization demands that the college stop harassing the professor. Well, of course the college should stop bothering this fellow (it’s been messing with his course selection and that sort of thing). But those of us who care about the intellectual integrity of the humanities classroom should find him bothersome. The particular course in question, again, is Introduction to Philosophy. American undergraduates coming to a course of this type early in their career are liable to know next to nothing about the topic. Do you think it’s a good idea for their first reading in the subject to be an affirmation on their syllabus of “Catholic Christian” (somewhat confusing, that) faith on the part of the instructor? Why should my initiation into the thought of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Plotinus, Descartes, Leibnitz, Hegel, Kant, Schopenhauer and Wittgenstein be a rather baffling profession of faith from the person who is supposed to be leading me dispassionately through this history of thought? What is the point of this personal profession at this place and time? The professor’s confession expresses the following to me: “Please be aware that I’m incapable of any degree of objectivity in regard to the subject matter at hand. Please also be aware that my moral superiority to the secular thinkers on our reading list needs to be established at the outset.” Does the professor intend for me to read his confession in this way? Who knows. But all I see in these sentences is a need to display one’s piety to an audience. And finally -- “please be aware of where I am coming from”? Why do I, your student, need to be aware of much of anything about you? (And please be aware that ‘sixties cliches make me barf.) If I cared about your origins I would have looked for a course titled “Your Professor's Origins.” As it is, I’m given to believe that the thought of Martin Heidegger has a stronger claim on my attention than my professor's religious history. UPDATE Sunday Night: Another Instance of Inappropriate Mention of Religion Pilot asks Christians to talk of faith in jet Associated Press First published: Sunday, February 8, 2004 NEW YORK -- An American Airlines pilot flying passengers to New York asked Christians on board to identify themselves and suggested the non-Christians discuss the faith with them, a spokesman for the airline said Saturday. Flight 34 was headed from Los Angeles to John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday afternoon, said spokesman Tim Wagner. The pilot, whose identity was not released, had been making flight announcements and then asked that the Christians on board raise their hands, Wagner said. The pilot told the airline that he then suggested the other passengers use the flight time to talk to the identified Christians about their faith, Wagner said. The pilot later told passengers he would be available at the end of the flight to talk about his first announcement. Wagner said the airline was investigating the incident, and that the company had guidelines about appropriate behavior. He said the pilot had just returned to work from a weeklong mission trip to Costa Rica. "It falls along the lines of a personal level of sharing that may not be appropriate for one of our employees on the job." |