Could an education in philosophy be a form of indoctrination?

Question

Students of philosophy - with some rare exceptions - typically leave the university with a suspiciously uniformed set of beliefs:

-That questions of metaphysics are to be solved on a practical moral basis at best.
-That pre-socratic philosophers, and sophists in particular, should be discredited and that no effort needs to be made in understanding their thoughts.
-That philosophy's ultimate role is to organize the natural sciences.
-That rationality and empiricism are the only acceptable modes of philosophical enquiries.
-That there is an obvious difference between objective experiences and subjective ones.
-That every valuable thought is communicable.
-That all texts can be read in abstracto of experience.
-That progress exists, and that philosophy can be shown to follow its path.
-etc..., etc..., etc...

Could university philosophy be an endoctrination?
Has something gone wrong in the way philosophy defines itself within academic institutions?

In philosophy, which prides itself as being the refuge of the free-thinking, of all branches of inquiry, shouldn't uniformity be regarded with the highest suspicion?

As for biographical details, I have graduated (with honors I may add) in philosophy some years ago. I'm afraid I simply left the university as a bona fide heretic.

Answer 1

Yes. Derrida even named this as phallologocentrism and seeked out ways of decontructing philosophy. and this Deconstructionism (first starting with Nietzsche to be fair) seems the end of philosophy, now seen as some sort of mind-washing propoganda, like a religion, sort of, set to bind rather than set free.

However, Deconstructing Deconstruction breaks this so-called ideology of philosophy, thus in metaphorical terms, exploding philosophy into a plurality of TruthS, reevaluating the meaning of meaning, and accepting all meanings as meaningful, displacing the importance of Truth in epistemology and focusing on Power instead. All methods of knowledge are propoganda, and therefore, studying how the power of such methods finds its way to the meaningful dialogue on the network that is our human condition, that is now one of many many new places for philosophy to explore, deconstructing along the way, the power mechanism at hand purporting themselves as meaningful, or even all meaningful.

So, the history of philosophy is endoctrinational (which is what is taught at the university and by so called experts) but doing philosophy, acting, investigating, working and deconstructing.... living philosophy is the new way.

and philosophy is a way, a means, not an ideology in itself. And an education in philosophy, as long as one educates himself (even with the guidance of the institution) continually growing within his own doings-philsophic, then this education is not only de-endoctrinating but also protects the philosophizing person from all forms of mind-influence from all forms of less benign endoctrinations.

example, if philosophy, the evil kind taught in the university, was rampant in the fundamentalist states thru out the world, then this endoctrination would be less demonic than the men who persuade children to blow themselves up for their specific ideological/political cause.

of the two evils, i choose the university. it allows the possibility of one's own philosophical freedom and attainment of one's own ways of being and knowledge.

Answer 2

An interesting question. The answer is of course, yes, but with most philosophic ideas, there is depth in the answering of it.

Most people, Professors of Philosophy especially will give you the path that they took, and that path does not always lead to the place in your mind where you find the most value for debate/discussion. I think that most people teaching Philosophy have an agenda, and rightfully so. If I taught it, I would espouse with greater conviction my own belief structure whatever that may be. We all strive to have an original thought. And the journey to that birth, and the process involved is long, and arduous. My first 100 level was the best course I have ever taken. Being a philosophy Major, you have to cope with the fact that you will never achieve the path to your own way of thinking, or your own creative or intellectual potential taking on someone else's system of philosophic structure. Especially in ethics.

Most of the early texts that I read during college were excerpted passages from ancient texts that someone thought was relevant. As you get on in years, your realize that those passages were really not the doorway to understanding the original thought, but only a taste of what encompassed the entire idea. I think that the best way to avoid indoctrination in Philosophy is to read ENTIRE texts. Not just basic thought. You learned about Descartes Evil Genius, but did you really take it in? How could you have unless you read the text that made the entire body of work? The same is true for the major archetypes of wisdom, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Galileo, Kant, Lock, Descartes, Spinoza, Nietzsche, blah blah blah.

Answer 3

Most of the people who lobby the school boards are trying to control what the children think and Philosophy in it's traditional sense teaches people both to think for themselves and how to do it. Such people are far less likely to be persuaded by buzz words and shouted slogans which is all the average political or religious argument entails. There is also the problem that children grounded in logic and rational skepticism will not be inclined to blindly accept what their teachers say as infallible, or, for that matter, what their parents and ministers say. What would those people do if they had to actually logically defend the things they wanted the kids to believe? It's far better for their purposes to undermine the educational system at the most basic level so that kids aren't capable of handling anything beyond a 30 second word bite or 150 character text message and can't grasp the concept that a word can have a specific and lexicographically precise meaning rather than whatever meaning anyone wants to claim it does. Do you think it's by chance that while U.S. Universities continue to be rated among the best in the world the number of U.S. students graduating from them, especially in such important subjects like math, science, and engineering, have been declining steadily for decades?

Answer 4

if you have studied philosophy to any extent and have had decent profs along the way, you will discover that there are many philosophical stances, which were expounded by different philosophers, so the gamut of thought and perspective is usually presented in any realm of philosophical study.

two quick examples: utilitarian philosophy can be summed up as: making the decision that benefits the greatest number of people.

thomas aquinas was best known for his natural philosophical position.
in utilitarian philosophy, the proverbial example is: you have someone with the info about a terrorist attack that will kill thousands of people. you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, this person has the info, so torturing them to get the info is okay because one life can be given up, if need be, to save many more lives. with utilitarians, it's all a numbers game.

thomas aquinas has some real flies in the ointment of his take on things because he thinks women are only around to bear children and if they don't, they are virtually worthless.

the value of a life, cannibalism and sexual orientation are just three areas which are all relative, depending on the societal standards. while most 'civilized' north americans shun the notions of human sacrifice, cannabalism and (some people still do) homosexuality, there are still many cultures on this globe in which all three are considered par for the course and not only acceptable but desirable behaviours.

from what you have written, it sounds as if your prof(s) are not following a true examination of what philosophy is all about, in which case, it can be said that you may be a victim of indoctrination. if your studies were being presented to you properly, open thinking would be welcomed, so i feel bad that this isn't occurring (or doesn't seem to be).

here's an uplifting thought: by its very nature, studying philosophy will make you feel like you're losing it. cheer up because you probably are!

cheers,


puffnagel :-)

Answer 5

I remember my old philosophy classmates and how we would sometimes argue about everything. I do think that there is a level of indoctrination involved, which would exist as long as professors grade their students based on how much they agree with him. (But how else would he grade them?! What a dilemna.)

Now my background is that I studied under Jesuits. My epistemology professor taught phenomenology. My metaphysics professor was a jesuit who took a great deal from St. Thomas. I had professors teaching about "liberation theology". What did I end up being: an Rand type (pseudo)-objectivist with a thing for Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. (Its pseudo-objectivist, because I couldn't discount the points made by phenomenology.)

But I like what Nietzsche said somewhere near the end of the first part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Zarathustra told his disciples not to follow him. Good advice, I think.

(But if we don't follow him, are we actually following him? hmmm...)

Answer 6

I have taken philosophy classes and the focus is more on understanding what is being said more than "believing" in it. I see what your saying though...maybe. but you could say all forms of education are a type of indoctrination. The thing is that people respond to things differently so what you want someone to get out of something might not happen. This doesn't change it from being a form of indoctrination so I would say it is in a sense.

Answer 7

A true philosopher takes in the arguments they learn for concepts at school and takes their own time to reflect on them, and on their own private study before accepting anything. One can go to school for philosophy and consider it history and ask when they can learn from it, or they can take all arguments as fact. It totally depends on the student, and sadly, I think many people that go into it are of the latter kind.

Answer 8

Yes and Yes Philosophy is pretty much BS when taught in public or priv schools the best philosophers are random people who educated themselfs and have no schooling what so ever. OF course that would be people like me lol...

IM me and see if its TRUE :)

Answer 9

I hope you are kidding! Everything you mentioned as indoctrination trains the mind to think more clearly.

I remembered when I first studied Greek philosophy. It was mind-expanding. I spent sleepless nights working out all that I was learning. Between that and learning basinc Taoist concepts, my entire way of looking at issues is so much more refined.

Indoctination is having ideas pounded into one's head that obstructs inventive thinking. Greek philosophy supports it.

Answer 10

Probably. I've never studied philosophy but I would never discount any philosopher's opinion without some of my own study and/or thought.

Just automatically discounting an opinion is sort of anti-philosophical, isn't it?