This shift appears in many classes, where, instead of demanding that students first master the scholarship that has evolved over the centuries, the first day begins with theories of postmodernist thought or deconstructionism.
Almost no one--certainly not I--would deny that recognizing, studying and criticizing the latest in academic thought is important or that modern texts can be fascinating.
But I would posit that we cannot be credible critics of any academic discipline, and especially not of its historical canon, unless we first recognize, study and criticize the great flow of scholarship that came before us or our modern critics.
The curriculum as it is now designed does not grant us the privilege of learning the basics. The limited scope of the concentration and the relatively small number of electives we have to play with do not provide for a broad-based education. Since there are only three types of courses--concentration, electives and the Core--we are forced to resort to the Core for much of our academic breadth. But there we find only increasing specialization.
For example, anyone looking for a survey of political philosophy among our Moral Reasoning classes will be disappointed to find no such thing offered. You can learn about "the ethics of everyday life" or "reason and morality," but you cannot study philosophy from Aristotle through Bertrand Russell.
I fulfilled this Core requirement by taking Moral Reasoning 54, "If There Is No God, All Is Permitted: Theism and Moral Reasoning." The course piqued my incipient enthusiasm for philosophy but, because I am not a philosophy concentrator, I will never be able to study Rene Descartes or John Locke in the context of their philosophical progenitors and successors.
Historical Studies presents another case that makes my point. These Core courses either address themes across history or narrow time periods, such as the English Revolution, the Cuban Revolution or the World Wars. Doesn't it make sense to study an area's or nation's history broadly before delving into thematic history or history-by-the-decade?
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