Broader Approach To Philosophy

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30445, 20 May 1964, Page 7

Broader Approach To Philosophy

Philosophy is now being studied widely overseas as a first-year unit in general university education and, as a result, more are taking the unit to advanced levels, according to Professor J. M. Shorter, of the University of Canterbury. Professor Shorter has been away for the first term lecturing by invitation at the University of Toronto. Toronto had about 17,000 full-time students and its philosophy department was proportionately larger and had 30 permanent staff compared with four in Canterbury, he said. The bachelor of arts course in philsosophy took four years, but the standard at the end of it was no higher than after three in Canterbury. This situation arose from the very general nature of first-year studies, Professor Shorter said, but he did not suggest that this approach was not useful. A large number of students were getting at least an introduction to philosophy and many became interested to go further. Philosophy was not a vocational subject, said Professor Shorter. It was a study for its own sake. Yet, increasingly, it was being brought into association with psycho-

logy, sociology, and political science and he had been considering the desirability in Canterbury of including comparative religion.

An innovation overseas which could be valuable in Canterbury was the teaching of the philosophy of science. Professor Shorter said there had been experiments with general talks on this theme, but he thought at least a full university unit would be preferable. After his stay in Toronto, Professor Shorter lectured by invitation at the University of Chicago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cornell University. He also attended a congress at Oberlin College, near Cleveland, which leading philosophers from all over the world attend each year. Returning home by way of England, Professor Shorter spent some weeks at the Universities of Manchester and Leeds. Philosophy numbers there were also rising, but teaching was more on traditional patterns.