WHO KILLED PHILOSOPHY?

Can you imagine a world where reason no longer existed? Or more precisely… a society where reason -that curious ability that makes us human, were no longer cultivated, studied or simply vindicated?

What kind of society would that be? What kind of citizens would live there? Or, what kind of future would hold for such a society? Would it be even possible to talk about a “human society” as such?

Not long ago, this type of questions belonged exclusively to the fiction literary sphere. Today, these questions unify the diverse philosophical community in Mexico where Philosophy and, in fact, the entire field of humanities, have both been eliminated from the Core Curriculum in the public and private education systems.

Who did this? On what grounds? Is this a joke?, a bad one!?...

Who would dare to do such a thing to the most ancient academic discipline? A tradition of thought whose western lineage stretches from Socrates and Aristotle to Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas to Kant and Hegel, and on throughout modernity to the present, and whose eastern traditions embrace Persia, India, China, Korea, Japan and the Middle East, let alone the Mesoamerican indigenous peoples?

Who in his right mind would eradicate the professional study of fundamental problems connected with life itself, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language?

Who would keep the new generations of young people from developing the most powerful instrument they have (namely, their own mind... their own reason) to think and to meet the extraordinary challenges of today´s world?

Five years ago, I wrote a post about the curricular review undertaken at Harvard where Philosophy was vindicated as one of the cornerstones of the student´s academic formation. Today, UNESCO recognizes the importance of teaching Philosophy even at pre-school and primary levels whereas in Mexico, it is eliminated?

Do the authors of this nonsense really expect that we will stand on the sidelines, mute, as mere spectators?

Note: Ironically, the brain behind this mess will be the 2011 Commencement speaker at Stanford next June.

The Movement in Defense of Philosophy in Mexico

OFMX