Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Academia

  • The Higher Infantilization and Perpetual Childhood

    I coined 'higher infantilization' recently to cover what is going on in so-called institutions of higher learning.  (The STEM disciplines excepted.) The New Criterion provides a good explanation of this infantilization which is also a feminization: “Perpetual childhood.” Is there a better illustration of this enforced immaturity than the regime of “safe spaces,” “microaggressions,” and…

  • The Decline of the Universities

    From Plato to Play-Doh. From Higher Education to Higher Infantilization. The decline of the universities is the decline of the West. The Left has a lot to answer for.

  • College-Educated or College-Indoctrinated?

    Lefties like to point out that the college-educated favored Hillary over Trump.  But so what?  Apart from the STEM disciplines, the colleges and universities of the land have become leftist seminaries, hotbeds of political correctness, and centers of Higher Infantilization.  They have strayed far from their original charter. So of course the college-indoctrinated will favor…

  • A Philosopher on the Midlife Crisis

    Kieran Setiya, The Midlife Crisis.  An outstanding essay.  What exactly is a midlife crisis? In the form that will concern us, then, the midlife crisis is an apparent absence of meaning or significance in life that allows for the continued presence of reasons to act. Although it is often inspired by the acknowledgement of mortality,…

  • Michael Rectenwald on ‘Trigger Warnings’ and the Origin of the Alt Right

    For background, read this Inside Higher Ed article. As far as I can make out, NYU professor Michael Rectenwald  is a commie who takes issue with the trigger warning nonsense because it gives the Left a bad name.  The following from an interview in the NYU student newspaper: Michael Rectenwald: My contention is that this…

  • Anthony Esolen Under Fire at Providence College

    More proof of the collapse of American universities and Catholic universities in particular.  As a result of the abdication of authority on the part of administrators, 'Catholic' universities have become anti-Catholic leftist seminaries, hotbeds of cultural Marxism.  Am I exaggerating?  Read Rod Dreher's interview with Professor Esolen and see for yourself.  Here is the message…

  • Defunding the Left

    You know things have come to a sorry pass when defunding the Left might have to include withdrawal of financial support from The Society of Christian Philosophers. What we really need is an Association of Conservative Philosophers.  (The resonance of the initials ACP will not be lost on my astute readers.)  The contributors to Rightly…

  • The Academic Curtain

    Thomas Sowell on the sad state of our elite universities.  Excerpt: There is no barbed wire around our campuses, nor armed guards keeping unwelcome ideas out. So there is no "iron curtain." But there is a curtain, and it has its effect. One effect is that many of the rising generation can go from elementary…

  • The Hypocrisy of Contemporary Academic Philosophy

    A ferocious critic nails it.

  • The Decline of Academic Philosophy

    Further documentation: Christina van Dyke Owes Richard Swinburne her Resignation Should Christina van Dyke Resign? Thank God there are people like Edward Feser with the civil courage to expose the rot in contemporary academic philosophy and denounce the rotters like Jason Stanley who contribute to it. UPDATE (10/6): Philosophy Professor Under Fire for Online Post

  • An Open Letter to Michael Rea from a Worried Gay Philosopher

    More on the Swinburne controversy.

  • Price Changes 1996-2016

    Graph from the American Enterprise Institute.  Commentary mine. One irony here is that the more worthless college education becomes (in the non-STEM areas at least), the more outrageously expensive it becomes, while with electronics, the use value of the gear skyrockets while  prices plunge.   In the 'higher education' sector, a trifecta of corruption and…

  • A Paradox of Plenty

    Complain if you like about the low level of your students, but bear in mind that you probably wouldn't have a teaching job if if it weren't for the decline in standards that led to the expansion of 'higher education.'

  • Peter Kreeft on the Benefits of Theistic Belief

    This is an outstanding five-minute video by Peter Kreeft of Boston College.  (HT: J. I. Odegaard) It presents the theistic worldview and its naturalistic alternative about as clearly as is possible within a few minutes.  It doesn't argue for or against, but it does present the benefits of theism. It is in the Prager U…

  • What Happened to Angela Davis?

    Roger Kimball: Saturday marked the 44th anniversary of Angela Davis’s acquittal on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. Remember Angela Davis? I asked several of my younger colleagues: No one under 35 had heard of her. But the former Black Panther, recipient of the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize, and two-time vice-presidential candidate on the…