As a deep lover and practioner of philosophy, i'm very disappointed by this decision of Mr. President Machen. The philosophic side of life is an essential part of life, it's not obsolete, and hence, ignoring it, is like trying to stop with breathing. It is interesting to philosophize about this. Philosophy can make the difference between life and death in someone's life. What is in our heads, runs and influences our life deeply. Our society is built on a philosophic foundation. Philosophy can be the spark that leads to a humanisation and beautification of anybody's, anybody's, existence. What is also striking about philosophy, is that it is entirely free and costless. We can philosophize with each other, without any material necessities. We can keep much information in our heads. Ignoring philosophy, also means ignoring the rich philosophic treasures made in the past by philosophers. It is very fascinating to philosophize about that, and what it means to ignore all their work. Don't they respect all of this? When they refer to Plato or Aristoteles in a dialogue, doesn't that indicate a certain degree of development, of intelligence? Isn't that a good thing? I'm also amazed by the lack of respect for all the past accomplished philosophers, and i wonder if they sacrificed so much for it, and that all, all, all, all, of it would have been in vain. A nice example of this is Soren Kierkegaard, who chose a different direction than a family. I am fascinated by how he would think about this situation. Finding philosophic books indeed can cost something, and can be difficult to get a hold of. But the World-Wide-Web has compensated for that by making all data free for everybody and making it accessible to basically every human being on our planet (and if they can't, they'll know someone else that can). I am intrigued by what motivates someone to cut a philosophic program. We cannot be human without thinking. But then again, even if there are no more Philosophy programs in an university, there are so much people not in an university, that can access easily philosophy ... so there can be plentily philosophized. The plant will keep growing. Autodidacticism is a beautiful thing. And we can also teach each other. And even if all philosophy would be banned in a society, society can still be escaped, we can always go to the woestijn. We don't own this planet. Nature does. It is fascinating to philosophize about if people can live without their society, and about what kind of life there would be out there, beyond our material boundaries. But then again, I leef in the small land of België, and not in the United States, and here philosophy is nicely taught in our universities, as i've seen myself when i have visited one of them one time, which i'm very fond of. I'm also so happy they have their libraries open to anybody, so i can find a book there which i can't find anywhere else. They have so many levels. You must always know at what floor you must deliver what book.
~Mark Huijbrechts
cosmopolitan artist
ps: i have opened up a topic on
http://www.fyodordostoevsky.com to discuss this matter.
And TheFernando...
... i think there is a typo in your signature.
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