Philosophy in the University: Athena or Socrates?

PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY: ATHENA OR SOCRATES? SOCIETY IS ALWAYS bound to find philosophers intolerable , that notorious breed who make it their profession , like their father Socrates, to question everything. Moreover, philosophers insist on teaching, on bringing forth the new life of raised consciousness in those around them. And this experience of passing from the mind's dark and comfortable womb to the light of day is usually traumatic. Instead of being grateful, people generally hate those who precipitate such an event. Without his daimon, Socrates admitted, he could never have sustained the philosophical life. The problem is somewhat like that of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. Society hangs on for dear life itself to its traditions. To unsettle those traditions is to unsettle the subject of those traditions. And no subject will tolerate unsettlement indefinitely. Beyond a certain point it fights back for its life, its identity, its traditions. Hence also its prohibitions. Hence the burdensome existence of every philosophy teacher true to his model. If it is true that there is no history of a happy philosopher, perhaps Socrates' paradigmatic life explains it all. But to come down to some specificity. (A common scholastic word, by the way, long before Watergate taught the nation how to pronounce it.) The problem of a philosophy teacher vis-a-vis society is not that he questions, but rather what he questions. For no one will deny that questioning is part of teaching. But question everything? Then how exactly, the philosopher asks, should he question? Clearly, the issue touches philosophy teachers not only in a Catholic but indeed in any university, say, a Russian or a Red 685 636 BENJAMIN S. LLAMZON Chinese university. That is, any university which identifies itself explicitly with the values of a larger community. For if questions are raised only as devices to bring on pre-forged answers , which in turn are meant merely to reinforce community beliefs, then the intellectual life is mocked, the university enterprise turned into a farce. If, on the other hand, questions are genuine, as they should be, with answers truly open to possibilities other than traditional beliefs, then the larger community 's interest in sending their young specifically to such and such a university seems betrayed. Such is the dilemma which, appearing in various forms, seems to plague the Catholic educational scene in every age. For his part, a philosopher cannot evade the perilous task of working through a solution consonant with the signs of the times in the church, country and the university. There are related questions. Though peripheral and probably better handled by other disciplines, we should mention at least two of them which seem to touch our topic quite closely. One, how many of the students in a Catholic college today are there anymore because it is strictly Catholic? My own limited classroom surveys reveal that public and private loans, grants, scholarships, a relatively " higher " level of campus clientele, manageable tuition, ecumenism, even just sheer physical convenience and a safe location all figure decisively enough in a student's choice of a school to caution against usual presuppositions on the matter. Two, does it make sense anymore to refer to students today as the "young"? After all, among other things, these "young" today can vote, purchase liquor, get the pill, even undergo abortion without strict requirement of parental permission. Parietals are a fact of life in campus dormitories. Are these not indicators that the university has already changed away from its traditional in loco parentis status? Are these not in effect an admission that students are now masters of their own morals and mature enough not to need any protection from themselves? Yet, interestingly enough, we hang on to the characterization PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY 687 of the university as an Alma Mater to her alumni? This persists unchanged. Everyone continues to decry the trend toward mass production and impersonality on campus. Indeed there would be spirited and universal support today for Newman's insistence that a college be an "Alma Mater, knowing her children one by one, not a foundry or a mint or a treadmill." 1 How to make this real in the face...