I use this blog not only to comment on Energy and Environment issues, but also on Education issues, and on the defense of Scientific thinking. I am not using it for Politics, except as it affects the above issues. This article is to reply to the attack on Philosophers in higher education. Obviously, Chancellors, University Presidents, and Deans of Liberal Arts can and will defend the liberal arts,, but I have not seen press articles by them yet.
Of course, I am referring to Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s remark favoring vocational education over Philosophy at the college level. First, I strongly support vocational education. However, decisions about both vocational education in High School and College is made at the state and local levels, and budgeted at both the state and local levels.
What does the federal government, and in particular the President, have to do with these issues? I thought the Republican Party position was to get the federal government out of education. This was emphasized by Rubio’s opponent Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who forgot in his list of five departments, that he was going to immediately abolish the Department of Education, but chose to abolish the Department of Commerce twice. Philosophers do not generally receive federal grants at the levels of STEM researchers, and any federal funding drop for them would be far insufficient to fund the very large needs for funding vocational education facilities in high school or colleges.
I take Senator Rubio’s comments to not just apply to philosophers, but to any non-STEM or liberal arts majors that do not lead immediately to jobs in industry. That would also include English majors, and Political Science majors for example. Senator Rubio received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida in Political Science. In his case, though, after receiving his J.D. at the University of Miami, he has spent his entire career in politics. People with these liberal arts fields have excellent future careers, for example, in Medical School (like my doctor), in many business, in teaching, and in Law (I include here a link to the Stanford Law School Philosophy of Law program which recommends majoring in Philosophy.)
Philosophy has many aspects, including being a basis for government, politics, and law. It is hard to imagine that in three years of law school, Senator Rubio was not exposed to the philosophy of law. If he studied constitutional law or legislative law making as in the Senate, he must have learned about the philosophy behind constitutional government, and the source of the justification of laws.
In a separate press comment, he derided Greek Philosophy. I imagine this includes Democritus who hypothesized the atom, which is the basis of Physics and Chemistry. Democritus also backed explaining phenomena by scientific laws, not by religion or as a result of desired ends, an important lesson for Climate Change Deniers in Congress. It also might include Plato who favored constitutional government, and governance by philosophers with wisdom. It might also include Locke, who argued for free speech.
While there are some voters in primaries who of course want more attention to practical jobs, attacking liberal arts majors or academics is not a target that will benefit them. There are also many voters who have attended the Colleges and Universities in all states, who will question the attack on the liberal arts.
Senator Rubio also attacked the high price of a college education. This is an ongoing battle for public colleges and universities, but their funding is done at a state level, and is a function of voters’ not cutting state taxes. Voters should realize the benefits of giving higher education to their children, and of increasing the economic benefits to the state and themselves of having more educated workers in their state.
The highest costing colleges are the private ones. I don’t really think that Senator Rubio implied federal relief for private colleges, or federal restrictions on what they can charge. That is outside any possible constitutional jurisdiction of the President or Congress.
I hope that Senator Rubio’s liberal arts educated staff and advisors will enlighten him on the importance of philosophy and the liberal arts. I also hope that more college and university educators will speak out on the importance of both vocational and liberal arts education.
