Philosophy Going the Way of The Buffalo

One of the most important classes I took in college was Intro to Philosophy. By “important,” I mean “has had measurable lasting impact on me.” In a different life, I might have become a literal doctor in philosophy. But, since I took it at the start of my junior year and already had grad school plans in mind, that would not be the case. And yet, it still almost worked out. Such is the pull of philosophy for those who dare to know.

I didn’t take it until my junior year because I spent the first two years of college at a Bible institute just studying the Bible, theology, and the art of ministry. Intro to Philosophy opened up a whole new world of inquiry that was complimentary, but a different lane entirely. And so, I started on parallel tracks since majoring in philosophy wasn’t an option at that point.

When I got to Dallas Seminary, I decided to focus on systematic theology as part of my Master in Theology, but with a specific emphasis in philosophy and also apologetics. I would wind up completing a thesis under the only philosophy prof there, flirt with the idea of pursuing a Ph.D in Philosophy at Notre Dame like he did, but ultimately take home the Apologetics Award for my work and settle into being a Bible teacher in Florida.

Philosophy, much like theology, can both be a field of inquiry, and a mode of reasoning. And similar to theology, has wide applications. In that Intro to Philosophy class, I mainly learned about the history of thought, but it opened up new ways of thinking for me that would remain in tension until John Frame helped me synthesis different schools of thought. He can do the same for you if you’re willing to read his History of Western Theology and Philosophy.

But that’s not why I’m writing. I happened to take that Intro to Philosophy class from Mark Foreman as part of my beginning of a degree program at Liberty University, and now I’m seeing that he, along with most of his department, is being let go at the end of next month. The website still lists a Bachelor in Philosophy as a degree option with the next start date of August 24, 2020. Not sure how that’s going to work though without philosophy professors to teach the classes.

Liberty is not what it used to be, not even when I was there almost 15 years ago. I did all my studies online, though I did visit campus a few times, enough to wave the OG Jerry Falwell once.

In recent days, Junior seems dead-set on running the school like a business, which I suppose it is. I could see how a commitment to that would gut the philosophy department as it is probably not a money maker degree. But, I was a Psych major, and benefited tremendously from taking Intro to Philosophy, a class you can’t hand off to someone not well versed in the history of thought. It would be sad to see it no longer offered, and sadder still to think how it impoverishes the education you might get at Liberty these days.

On the one hand, it makes sense to cater to the degrees that people see as more practical. And yet we see the effects of not teaching subjects like philosophy. Not everyone needs to know how to explain what “epistemology” is, but everyone uses it every day, and most not very well. We all want to know how to live the good life, and that is the whole point of the field of ethics. And some of us even want to get metaphysical from time to time, thinking about the nature of reality.

So, hopefully it’s not the end of the philosophy department at Liberty. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was, and that says a lot about where Liberty is institutionally, as well as my opinion about my alma mater. I’m glad I went on to Dallas to get my masters, because that’s all anyone really cares about. It’s not an easy time to be a philosopher, but then again, that’s been true for a while and we’re seeing the effects more and more.