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Oct. 14th, 2012 04:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sathor"There are many professors of philosophy, and few philosophers."
If we take this quote from Thoreau, we can look at it a number of ways. But I think that it is most accurate to take it literally, meaning:
"There are many who profess a love of wisdom, and few who love it."
It is a philosopher's duty, particularly in this era, to cast down the institutions that have become the gatekeepers. Once they were blood right and master tradesmen, and indeed, they still are with the exception made for true genius. But to love wisdom means to seek it. And one will not find wisdom in the halls of corporate, for-profit academia; precisely what "university" has become.
I recognize fully, at my current age, that I have let slip between my fingers the "opportunity" - if it can be called that - to enter into the category of degree holding individuals. I spent two years in higher education, and I had taste enough to last me a lifetime. I no longer desire to impress aging professors and teachers with my energies. Fifteen years was enough. The world; however, has changed.
To enter into "professional" lines of work - work that, purportedly, involves more mind than brawn, one must now obtain at the least a bachelor's degree - and in many cases, it is irrelevant what one's course of study was - one need only produce the paper. One must spend countless hours, then, reading subject matter which may or may not interest them - at their own expense - writing papers on said subject matter - which may not interest them - and ultimately regurgitate every piece of knowledge they are expected to, in exactitude, for a passing grade...all to receive the key to the gateway to professional lines of work.
Not only is one expected, particularly if one is not born in complete poverty or absolute wealth, to pay in full for this key, they are expected to perform adequately and consistently after paying. They are expected to not question the material, or the value of the material - they are not to switch "major" interest without incurring a significant financial penalty. At the end of the day, it is obvious that college is not for those who "love wisdom." It is for those who desire to simply, when completing their line of progression appropriately, to go out in the world and receive a leg up on those who didn't attend. Even if their merits...intellect...retention...and skill base is inferior to the non-attendee.
Of course, the argument will be, "We need some form of measuring stick - we have a hammer and we're going to use it on every nail." But it is my impression that we are quickly nailing our own coffin shut, in a spiral out of control.
If we take this quote from Thoreau, we can look at it a number of ways. But I think that it is most accurate to take it literally, meaning:
"There are many who profess a love of wisdom, and few who love it."
It is a philosopher's duty, particularly in this era, to cast down the institutions that have become the gatekeepers. Once they were blood right and master tradesmen, and indeed, they still are with the exception made for true genius. But to love wisdom means to seek it. And one will not find wisdom in the halls of corporate, for-profit academia; precisely what "university" has become.
I recognize fully, at my current age, that I have let slip between my fingers the "opportunity" - if it can be called that - to enter into the category of degree holding individuals. I spent two years in higher education, and I had taste enough to last me a lifetime. I no longer desire to impress aging professors and teachers with my energies. Fifteen years was enough. The world; however, has changed.
To enter into "professional" lines of work - work that, purportedly, involves more mind than brawn, one must now obtain at the least a bachelor's degree - and in many cases, it is irrelevant what one's course of study was - one need only produce the paper. One must spend countless hours, then, reading subject matter which may or may not interest them - at their own expense - writing papers on said subject matter - which may not interest them - and ultimately regurgitate every piece of knowledge they are expected to, in exactitude, for a passing grade...all to receive the key to the gateway to professional lines of work.
Not only is one expected, particularly if one is not born in complete poverty or absolute wealth, to pay in full for this key, they are expected to perform adequately and consistently after paying. They are expected to not question the material, or the value of the material - they are not to switch "major" interest without incurring a significant financial penalty. At the end of the day, it is obvious that college is not for those who "love wisdom." It is for those who desire to simply, when completing their line of progression appropriately, to go out in the world and receive a leg up on those who didn't attend. Even if their merits...intellect...retention...and skill base is inferior to the non-attendee.
Of course, the argument will be, "We need some form of measuring stick - we have a hammer and we're going to use it on every nail." But it is my impression that we are quickly nailing our own coffin shut, in a spiral out of control.
