There is nothing new about students criticizing the 18 hours of philosophy and religious studies in Loyola’s common curriculum.
However, it was striking to me how many of the candidates for the highest SGA positions seemed to stand for a revision of this structure.
Still, the most surprising moment for me was when presidential candidate Kate Gremillion, in answering a question in the debate last Tuesday, remarked on what she saw as the incompatibility of those 18 hours with the well-roundedness the curriculum should provide.
I can understand why a person may think that two subjects making up over a third of the common curriculum would be unbalanced, but with some honest thought, I think it becomes apparent why this is and should be the case.
On the part of religious studies, I will simply point out that knowing something about the religions of the world opens new insights into any culture’s literature, history and people.
Philosophy, however, is even more fundamental to a holistic education. As evidence of this, I would like to share some interesting pieces of information.
First, those who study philosophy do better on standardized tests. A recent Harvard University study reports that philosophy majors, on average, report the highest scores on the verbal section of the GRE and the highest of humanities majors on the quantitative section.
They, on average, outperform even business majors on the GMAT and anyone other than economics or mathematics majors on the LSAT.
Famous philosophy students include actor Harrison Ford, legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson, game-show host Alex Trebek, comedian Steve Martin, politician Rudy Giuliani and martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
Several have talked openly about how studying philosophy led them to their careers. Obviously, then, philosophy is not a purely academic discipline.
Famous thinkers who have used philosophy to contribute to other fields include Leibniz, Marx, Thomas Kuhn, Jean Piaget and Foucault, who together have influenced practically every art or science taught at a university.
Loyola has produced one Rhodes Scholar and one Marshall Scholar. Both studied philosophy.
Finally, philosophy once encompassed nearly all of the arts and sciences that should be taught at a university. It is still the only field I know of that is made up of subdisciplines that take as their objects other disciplines — branches such as philosophy of science, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of history and philosophy of film, to name a few.
All of these facts point to something else, a more important fact: philosophy is about asking fundamental questions. These “big questions” are able to get at the roots and presuppositions of virtually every other field of study.
Philosophy is able to teach students how to think, how to engage in valid argument and how to take up other perspectives. This is valuable for any person in any field.
Philosophy, then, is not placed at the center of a holistic education. It always has been the center. Maybe it is time we realized that and began to respect it.
Nick Courtney is a philosophy and medieval studies senior who recently received a full scholarship and
stipend for graduate studies at the
University of Cambridge in the United
Kingdom. He can be reached at
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