Philosophy and Religious Studies Department

Transcription

1 Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Mission, goals and objectives The Philosophy and Religious Studies Department nurtures the development of reason namely, a thoughtful, informed, and critically reflective intellectual conscience that is ever ready to identify and reassess basic assumptions within the Western Oregon State College community generally but most especially within the department s students. In accordance with its mission and in support of each of its programs, the department offers a coherent curriculum of interesting, well-conceived, and well-taught courses. Courses in the philosophy program introduce students to the best of the Western tradition of philosophical inquiry, from ancient Greece to the present, and cover each of the major subfields of philosophy. Courses in the comparative study of religion acquaint students with the empathetically objective study of the full variety of human religious phenomena and the major religious traditions. As an important dimension of both programs, the department seeks to promote the formation of communities of philosophical inquiry, both within regular courses and outside them. Faculty help students develop interpersonal abilities through practice in the skills, dispositions, and etiquette of productive rational discussion of matters which otherwise tend to be the source of non-productive discussion or conflicts without resolution. Program The following programs are offered: a philosophy minor, a humanities major for students who concentrate in philosophy, a humanities minor for students who concentrate in religious studies, an elementary education support area in philosophy, an elementary education support area in religious studies, and a philosophy component of the Honors Program. There is a good match between the explicit mission and objectives of departmental programs and the courses designed to develop them. The minor in philosophy and the humanities major with a concentration in philosophy provide a strong background for any student wishing to pursue graduate study in philosophy particularly in terms of a curricular emphasis on the history of philosophy, a broad spectrum of courses covering basic areas in philosophy, and the diversity in expertise and orientation among department faculty. Other programs are remarkable in terms of their strength and distinctiveness within the Northwest. The elementary education support area in philosophy gives special emphasis to teaching students how to develop reasoning skills in children through guided philosophical discussion. This coursework strengthens the background of students in elementary education by providing an opportunity to develop skill in leading philosophical discussions in a Socratic way. 198

2 Educational Program and Its Effectiveness The minor in humanities with a concentration in religious studies and the elementary education support area in religious studies expose students to the full spectrum of human religiousness and disciplined training in interpreting religion in an empathetically objective way. This latter training directly addresses the needs of future teachers to be able to handle religious studies in the context of public education in a legally and morally appropriate manner. The department supplements regular curricular offerings with support of the student Philosophy Club, which is one of the strongest in the state, and regularly sponsors a faculty lecture series, outside speakers, an annual spring symposium, and a weekly philosophical discussion for students on subjects selected by participating students. The department has some weaknesses. Western does not offer a philosophy major despite a growing number of interested students and faculty. Library holdings are inadequate to support a philosophy major. Regular upper-division course offerings in philosophy are sparse. The sense of community among philosophy minors and humanities majors with a concentration in philosophy is weaker than it should be, despite the involvement of many of them in Philosophy Club. Finally, the heavy workload that faculty endure ( students per quarter with no graduate assistants) significantly restricts time to gather, reflect, discuss, and improve instruction and professional development. More time is needed to provide the personally intensive Socratic questioning of all students which most effectively develops their thinking. The faculty need better support for their philosophical research and publication. Good philosophy demands a certain amount of leisure time, difficult to carve out with current teaching and related assignments. The objectives for each of the programs have been specifically designed to be consistent with and implement the mission and objectives of the department as a whole. Syllabi for all courses currently offered are now on file and have been verified to be consistent with the objectives of the programs they support. The only course which has not been taught in the past two years is Philosophy and Contemporary Education (Phl 446). That course has been supplanted by a lower division course, Philosophy of Education (Phl 286), which will be offered in High enrollment is expected. Upgrading of course content is principally left up to the individual faculty member to which the course is assigned. All faculty revise course content on the basis of their ongoing studies and reading, replacing textbooks when new and improved ones become available. However, many philosophy courses employ primary classic texts which do not become dated. Instructional methods encompass the full gamut of pedagogical strategies and techniques, but Western s philosophy courses emphasize Socratic dialectical discussion that draws out, develops, and elicits critical self-reflection in relation to course readings. Because computers and computer software do not lend themselves well to teaching philosophy, faculty have made little use of them in teaching. 199

3 Relationship to Liberal Arts Core Curriculum All of the department s programs build upon and seek to connect with the entire spectrum of content and skills addressed within the Liberal Arts Core Curriculum (LACC), not just upon the required course in philosophy or religious studies. To nurture the development of reason in every area of thought and life department faculty help students explore philosophical issues and assumptions that bear on every discipline and subject matter thus further broadening their intellectual horizons, pressing them to inquire in greater depth, and equipping them to be more in charge of their own thinking and reasoning, whatever the subject matter. Introductory philosophy courses which service the core curriculum are of consistently high quality, taught both by senior tenured and tenure-track faculty and seasoned and well-qualified part-time faculty. A major part of the faculty teaching responsibility (about 24 out of 42 sections annually) services the philosophy and religious studies requirement of the core. They take this responsibility seriously and have always done so. That is to say, it is conceived to be not a perfunctory task but a primary vocation to nurture the development in all Western students of a critically reflective intellectual conscience that will then carry over into whatever work they do. Lower division philosophy courses which meet the LACC requirement expose students to the questioning and dialectical development of ideas that exemplify at least one subfield of the Western tradition of philosophy. These courses don t just teach about it; they involve students directly in philosophical inquiry. Lower division religious studies courses which meet the LACC requirement immerse students in an empathetically objective approach to learning about and interpreting the great religious traditions alongside one another. These courses also don t teach about religion in only a comparative way; they involve students directly in the construction of bridges of communication and understanding. Both kinds of courses focus on having students learn to deal in thoughtful, reasoned, and humanely considerate ways in the face of differing assumptions and divergent world views. Faculty Despite its small size, the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department contains a healthy diversity in philosophical orientation and gender representation. Currently, the department has two full-time faculty, both with doctorates in philosophy, one male and one female. Both have many years of successful teaching experience and offer complementary specializations (philosophical anthropology, philosophy of religion, and comparative study of religion, on the one hand, and ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, feminist philosophy, and history of philosophy, on the other). The tenured member of these two has published one book and many articles. Another tenured member, who is also the dean of the school of Liberal Arts and Sciences, holds a doctorate in philosophy and has many years of successful teaching experience and many publications to his credit. His specialties include logic, ethics, philosophy of religion and history of philosophy. One of the two part-time members currently employed holds a doctorate in philosophy, and one holds a doctor of jurisprudence with a master of arts in philosophy. Both have many years of successful teaching experience, and the former has several 200

4 Educational Program and Its Effectiveness publications to his credit. The former s specialties include epistemology, philosophical anthropology, and contemporary continental philosophy; the latter s specialties include ethics, philosophy of law, modern philosophy, and contemporary philosophy. Although no one currently specializes in philosophy of science, philosophy of art, ancient philosophy, or metaphysics, the faculty with its versatility, breadth of interest, and years of teaching experience are able to handle these courses well. No minority group is specifically represented in the department s faculty. Current faculty are consistently ranked above average on peer evaluations. Currently, there are no plans to change the system for evaluation of teaching. Faculty have been encouraged to participate in workshops on the improvement of teaching. Two faculty members have participated in on-campus teaching workshops in the last three years. Other resources Library and information technology resources to support coursework and student research are mixed. They are fairly good for religious studies, especially when supplemented by the recent interlibrary and Internet access now available on campus for students. The videotape collection in religious studies is fairly good. Library resources are weaker in philosophy (particularly holdings in texts by 20th-century philosophers and philosophy journals). The department is seeking to remedy the latter situation with careful selection and judicious buying on a limited budget. Other physical resources, such as classrooms, offices, and meeting spaces are adequate, if not ideal. Students Because accurate records of students have not been kept in the department over the last five years and because administrative records are not directly accessible for minors and elementary education support area programs, exact figures, especially concerning GPAs, are difficult to obtain. In the past five years, minors in philosophy have gone from about six to about 15. Majors in humanities with a philosophy concentration have ranged from one to four. Minors in humanities with a religious studies concentration have gone from one to four. Currently elementary education students with a support area in philosophy range from five to six, and the number of elementary education students with a support area in religious studies ranges from four to five. Annual evaluations are being conducted for graduating students in each program to assess how well the programs in which they have participated meet the newly instituted departmental and program objectives, which includes the development of specific skills in reasoning and philosophical analysis. Faculty are instituting a means of assessing these students achievements within each program. In particular, a capstone requirement of a senior course for philosophy minors and humanities majors concentrating in philosophy is being approved. This final project will engage students in activities such as composing, presenting, defending, and revising a senior philosophy essay which will measure and showcase their achievement of program goals. Changes since the last report There have been many changes since the last report. One of the two full-time faculty of the department retired in December He was replaced by a female whose areas of 201

5 expertise in ethics and political philosophy have given an entirely new direction and expertise to curricular offerings. Two new part-time faculty members have brought improved quality to curricular offerings. This observation is validated among other ways by the numbers of students inspired to pursue a minor or major after taking their classes. In general, significantly more students are interested in philosophy or religious studies. In the last three years there has been a more systematic attempt to keep track of students in various programs, plus the elementary education support areas in philosophy and religious studies have been instituted since the last report. The newly instituted departmental and program mission statements and objectives further consolidate these changes. Program future The department will press for converting allocations for part-time faculty positions into a third, full-time, tenure-track position in philosophy with competence in religious studies. Approval of this position should facilitate the development of a philosophy major, an equally important goal. The department will institute some kind of capstone course for philosophy minors and humanities majors with a concentration in philosophy. The department will work to increase and balance library holdings in philosophy to fully support programs. Finally, the department plans to expand upper division curricular offerings in philosophy, including further courses in the history of philosophy and an upper division course in ethics. The last three activities mentioned will be pursued regardless of administrative decisions on the first two. 202