A Commentary on the Passing Scene by
Robert Paul Wolff
rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Sunday, May 5, 2013
BIG NEWS FROM THE MID-WEST
Brian Leiter's blog informs me that St. Louis University, a Jesuit school, has won a three million dollar grant from the Templeton Foundation to study -- wait for it -- "intellectual humility."
Intellectual humility is one of my favourite topics! 'Kantian Humility' is my favourite reading of Kant's epistemology, and I have a running project of trying to get people to take seriously academic skepticism (as opposed to the more radical and shallow Pyrrhic).
I wish somebody gave me a great big grant for telling people they know less things than they think they do. But I'm glad to see support of something so restrained, when normally the projects that attract attention are wild, extravagent and surely false ones.
I went to SLU and know the people who will be working on the project. Templeton is committed to promoting Christian philosophy and the scholars listed are Christians. (Stump, Greco, and Barber.)
They are also important philosophers who have shown great skill at making their work interesting, including to many who are not pursuing religious topics. There were many non-Christians in the department who were able to learn much.
I have visited other places that were much more insular than SLU.
I've grown weary of hearing on the internet that the Templeton Foundation is some sort of problem. Scholarship like this leads to events and articles that are publicly available and subject to wide peer review.
Don't ever apologize for liking your alma mater! One of the great things about American higher education is the many hundreds of colleges and universities that inspire as much loyalty as the handful of famous elite places. The alternative is a France, where anyone who did not go to one of "les grandes ecoles" feels inferior, or an England, where Oxbridge tower above the rest.
Intellectual humility is one of my favourite topics! 'Kantian Humility' is my favourite reading of Kant's epistemology, and I have a running project of trying to get people to take seriously academic skepticism (as opposed to the more radical and shallow Pyrrhic).
ReplyDeleteI wish somebody gave me a great big grant for telling people they know less things than they think they do. But I'm glad to see support of something so restrained, when normally the projects that attract attention are wild, extravagent and surely false ones.
Contact St Louis University. If they are serious, they will acknowledge that they need all the help they can get. :)
ReplyDeleteand, then, there's Templeton's agenda to worry about...
ReplyDeleteI went to SLU and know the people who will be working on the project. Templeton is committed to promoting Christian philosophy and the scholars listed are Christians. (Stump, Greco, and Barber.)
ReplyDeleteThey are also important philosophers who have shown great skill at making their work interesting, including to many who are not pursuing religious topics. There were many non-Christians in the department who were able to learn much.
I have visited other places that were much more insular than SLU.
I've grown weary of hearing on the internet that the Templeton Foundation is some sort of problem. Scholarship like this leads to events and articles that are publicly available and subject to wide peer review.
I hope I don't sound defensive. I just liked my old school.
ReplyDeleteDon't ever apologize for liking your alma mater! One of the great things about American higher education is the many hundreds of colleges and universities that inspire as much loyalty as the handful of famous elite places. The alternative is a France, where anyone who did not go to one of "les grandes ecoles" feels inferior, or an England, where Oxbridge tower above the rest.
ReplyDeleteHow true! Great point.
ReplyDelete