I took an Intro to Philosophy class with Prof. Frank Lubarski in 1991. Frank was a lovely guy, but I would not call him the most dynamic or entertaining instructor. Nevertheless, I very quickly decided: “I’m going to major in this.” Gregory had found his thing.
Twenty-two years later, I began teaching that subject and have been for 13 years. Funny old world.In Karl Marx’s work, Theses on Feuerbach, he says, “the philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it.” I believe this wholeheartedly. I decided three things day-one of teaching: (1) I would not swear in the classroom, (2) I would be myself and not go into professor mode, and (3) I would make educating my students the first priority.
Thirteen years later, I have never wavered from my three principles. (I do say “damn” and “hell” occasionally.) But I take the third point the most seriously. I want my students better educated after 16 weeks than they were at the beginning of the semester.
One of my inspirations is Socrates, as presented in Plato’s Apology. Socrates was committed to rousing his fellow Athenians from their doze. He wanted to wake them up, educate them, get them to think more analytically. And for his trouble, the “gadfly” was arrested and put to death. I suspect I’ll meet a similar fate at some point.
My approach to philosophy in general is to learn something. I find thinkers like Husserl and Heidegger intellectually fascinating, but they don’t tell me much about the world or the human condition. My focus is political theory. It’s Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, and Adam Smith on my end. That’s my crowd. When I read those thinkers, I learn something. And I go back to them again and again.
There are some people in my field for whom philosophy is a set of intellectual puzzles. They love fussing and problematizing. Essentially, they’re nerds. That’s all philosophy is for them. They read their Heidegger, and their Derrida, and their beloved “theory,” and have zero interest in the model set forth by Socrates. They are quite likely good liberals, listen to NPR, and don’t move a millimeter to the left of the New York Times.
This is largely why I despise the intellectual culture in this country. Its cravenness and cowardice are appalling and finds expression in how they approach their own subject matter.
In my classes, we cover a lot of material. In the Introduction to Philosophy classes, for example, we cover the main branches of the field. The students learn about Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant. They learn about free will, qualia, some philosophy of the mind, some philosophy of religion, innatism, some very basic linguistic theory, and a bit of art philosophy. We pack it in.
But I’m talking to people—young ones. They need to take inventory of their opinions, worldviews, and prejudices. Where’d you get all that stuff? Did you author those views? Or did you pick them up from the ambient culture like mud on your shoes? Or did you get them from your father?
• What is racism?
• What is race for that matter?
• If you grow up in a racist society, are you a racist?
• Where is the liberal center?
• Is liberalism at the center?
• When you talk to someone who is dying, what’s on their mind?
• What’s not on their mind?
• Why are you here—like this college classroom?
• Why are you majoring in your chosen subject?
• Are you trying to win your father’s respect?
• If you don’t have it now, you never will.
• What’s culture?
• Not what is an example of culture, but what is culture technically?
• Can one thing be better than another?
• Are all opinions of equal value?
• Is it okay to like bad things and dislike good things?
• You say you hate modern art, but do you know what modern art is?
• Is the population responsible for the state of things?
• If the government is a national disgrace, is that our fault?
• Gen Z has a lot going for it, but where does it fall down?
• So, your sister is smart and therefore you’re dumb? Huh.
• Why do you worry about what people think of you when you cannot ever know what people think of you? Seems silly, no?
So, yes, I think it’s important to be familiar with Descartes’s contributions. Absolutely. But when are students going to have these conversations? In their biology classes? In their computer science classes? In their marketing classes? Nope. So, when would be a good time? These young adults are starving for discussion and understanding of these topics. And professors who present philosophy as some abstract intellectual exercise—which it is for them—then I feel they’re cheating their students.
Now, for sure, some students do not like this approach. They do not like being told what they don’t want to hear. Nor did they come to college to learn and have fun. Go ahead. Read all about it on RateMyProfessor.com. It’s comical.
Quick anecdote: I had a student years ago at a community junior college I teach at. He was a superb student. We talked about RateMyProfessor.com and were laughing, and he said that he read all the negative reviews of me and thought to himself, “This guy’s gotta be good.” Hilarity ensued.
All my students are now warned on the first day of class: I get off topic. We will go down side streets. I teach beyond the syllabus. And if this sounds like it will not be a good fit, just tell me, and I will personally help you find another section of this course.
What do I mean by educated? I mean you can locate yourself in culture and history. You’ll need to know what culture is, and you’ll need to know something about history. The goal is to see your present context and hopefully achieve some critical distance so you can inspect what you’re soaking in. This is what it means to be educated.
Expertise don’t count. Acquired work knowledge doesn’t count. Those will make you proficient in your line of work, yes, but they will not make you educated.
My friend Leah (always with this Leah character!) recently asked me for a reading list. She is a beast of a reader—and annoyingly probably reads twice as fast as I do. So, I gave her the list and she replied, “In what order?” [sigh] … I therefore ordered the list. (She can be very demanding.) I thought I would include the list here if folks were looking for such a thing:
• Noam Chomsky, How the World Works
• Frans de Waal, The Bonobo and the Atheist
• Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins
• Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
• Gregory Harms, No Politics, No Religion?
• Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States
• Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All Politics
• Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow
• Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct
• Jon Lee Anderson, Che Guevara
Godspeed. If you have a thought: gharms@gmail.com
• If you grow up in a racist society, are you a racist?
• Where is the liberal center?
• Is liberalism at the center?
• When you talk to someone who is dying, what’s on their mind?
• What’s not on their mind?
• Why are you here—like this college classroom?
• Why are you majoring in your chosen subject?
• Are you trying to win your father’s respect?
• If you don’t have it now, you never will.
• What’s culture?
• Not what is an example of culture, but what is culture technically?
• Can one thing be better than another?
• Are all opinions of equal value?
• Is it okay to like bad things and dislike good things?
• You say you hate modern art, but do you know what modern art is?
• Is the population responsible for the state of things?
• If the government is a national disgrace, is that our fault?
• Gen Z has a lot going for it, but where does it fall down?
• So, your sister is smart and therefore you’re dumb? Huh.
• Why do you worry about what people think of you when you cannot ever know what people think of you? Seems silly, no?
So, yes, I think it’s important to be familiar with Descartes’s contributions. Absolutely. But when are students going to have these conversations? In their biology classes? In their computer science classes? In their marketing classes? Nope. So, when would be a good time? These young adults are starving for discussion and understanding of these topics. And professors who present philosophy as some abstract intellectual exercise—which it is for them—then I feel they’re cheating their students.
Now, for sure, some students do not like this approach. They do not like being told what they don’t want to hear. Nor did they come to college to learn and have fun. Go ahead. Read all about it on RateMyProfessor.com. It’s comical.
Quick anecdote: I had a student years ago at a community junior college I teach at. He was a superb student. We talked about RateMyProfessor.com and were laughing, and he said that he read all the negative reviews of me and thought to himself, “This guy’s gotta be good.” Hilarity ensued.
All my students are now warned on the first day of class: I get off topic. We will go down side streets. I teach beyond the syllabus. And if this sounds like it will not be a good fit, just tell me, and I will personally help you find another section of this course.
What do I mean by educated? I mean you can locate yourself in culture and history. You’ll need to know what culture is, and you’ll need to know something about history. The goal is to see your present context and hopefully achieve some critical distance so you can inspect what you’re soaking in. This is what it means to be educated.
Expertise don’t count. Acquired work knowledge doesn’t count. Those will make you proficient in your line of work, yes, but they will not make you educated.
My friend Leah (always with this Leah character!) recently asked me for a reading list. She is a beast of a reader—and annoyingly probably reads twice as fast as I do. So, I gave her the list and she replied, “In what order?” [sigh] … I therefore ordered the list. (She can be very demanding.) I thought I would include the list here if folks were looking for such a thing:
• Noam Chomsky, How the World Works
• Frans de Waal, The Bonobo and the Atheist
• Christopher Boehm, Moral Origins
• Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
• Gregory Harms, No Politics, No Religion?
• Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States
• Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, Winner-Take-All Politics
• Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow
• Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct
• Jon Lee Anderson, Che Guevara
Godspeed. If you have a thought: gharms@gmail.com
