Making Philosophy Matter for our Students

by Julie Van Camp, Professor of Philosophy

When I took my first philosophy course - a survey of the ancient Greeks ­ in my sophomore year at Mount Holyoke College, it was love at first sight. I knew then that I would major in philosophy and hoped someday to teach it. Finding ways to show my own students the excitement of philosophy is by far my most important goal in teaching.

Almost no one in an introductory course is there voluntarily. Many have heard from friends, siblings, and roommates that philosophy is a misery to be endured for general education. They have heard that the reading is difficult, the issues obscure, the significance for their own lives marginal, at best. So I try to introduce students to the excitement of the issues, the perspectives, the broad world views we pursue in philosophy. I emphasize good reasoning, considering all sides of an issue, raising "big picture questions." If students get excited about philosophical issues and methods, then perhaps they will feel motivated to find out what a great thinker like Plato or Hume had to say about them ­ but even if they never do, I hope they will see the value of philosophical pursuits.

Long ago, philosophy professors could assume that they were preparing students for future careers as philosophy professors. But with the collapse of the academic teaching market in the seventies, that is no longer realistic ­ nor is it ethical to encourage students to pursue such careers unless they have their eyes wide open about market realities. We have had to rethink our role in the University and that, I believe, is for the best. Our obligation now is to reach out to the campus to show how the vitality, the methodology, the perspective of philosophy enriches all the other disciplines. That pursuit, in turn, has revitalized philosophy and our conception of our role in higher education.

In introductory classes, which I love teaching, we equip students with skills for critical analysis, open-mindedness, close scrutiny of texts, and good reasoning ­ skills they need in every course they take. For students taking philosophy beyond the introductory level, we offer courses which give them alternative perspectives on their major interests-philosophy of business, of science, of art, of religion, of sport, of law, of the health sciences, of almost any human endeavor. In our specialized courses for the major, we consider the variety of careers our students will pursue-whether law, business, government, or any other field.

Our pre-law program in philosophy, which I established in 1994, added a special focus for students thinking about law school. Philosophy has always been a great major for pre-law students, and the law schools are quite clear that they prefer no particular major for admittance. They do care, however, that students develop good skills in reading, analysis, and writing, and that they have a broad awareness of our history and culture. I developed new law-related courses for the department, as well as a philosophy pre-law internship in a variety of settings. I want students to see what it is like in a legal work environment and to reflect on the ethical issues presented in that work place. Our interns have served at the California Coastal Commission, the Public Defenders' office, the Orange County Bar Foundation, and private firms, and I hope we will be able to expand the program in the coming years.

We often hear students lament, "what can you do with philosophy?" We like to reply, too coyly perhaps: "what can you do without it!" Yet I understand that in an era of pressure to succeed in a career at an early age and when so many fields seem to need highly specialized technical knowledge, students worry that philosophical studies-or the humanities in general-are luxuries they cannot afford in their rush to graduate and pursue economic success. Yet, as many of their parents and older siblings already know, a rapidly changing workplace makes it even more important that students not focus myopically on narrow technical skills that are likely to become obsolete. In philosophy, we try to equip them with the sorts of skills that will enable them to adapt to a changing workplace that no one can predict with any accuracy. Reasoning, analysis, independent critical thinking, learning how to learn, learning to solve challenging problems-these are skills that contribute to the adaptability students need over the long haul in their working lives.

I have introduced technology into my teaching for much the same reason. Technology for its own sake is not of much interest to me and that is better taught anyway by specialists in those areas. But I am concerned that our students are entering an on-line world once they finish their studies with us. Whether they continue their formal education in business school, law school, or graduate programs, or go directly into a career, students need to understand how these technologies can be used in a variety of settings. I am interested in technology as a means to an end, both the goal of better teaching now and also the goal of greater success in whatever it is that my students want to do next in life.

Much of my orientation to the uncertainties of the world which our students are entering comes from experiences in my own career. When I majored in philosophy in the late sixties and entered graduate school in philosophy, I assumed (as did almost everybody else) that the shortage of college teachers would continue and there would be plenty of jobs to choose from in a few years. Alas, after a hiring binge in the sixties, colleges nationwide discovered in the early seventies that they no longer needed new teachers. The first huge "bulge" of the baby boom had completed college, the draft ended, and the economy took a serious downturn. The academic job market went into total meltdown, and the predictions were grim as far as the demographers' eyes could see. I was part of what some later called "the missing generation of scholars."

Discouraged at the prospect of piecing together part-time teaching for the rest of my life, I took a leave of absence from my doctoral studies, mid-way through my dissertation, and pursued a quite unexpected opportunity as a management intern at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. I saw immediately how my skills in philosophical reasoning and analysis would serve me well in what I considered "applied philosophy," although the now-thriving field of "environmental ethics" did not yet exist in the seventies. It took a little longer for my supervisors to realize that someone who had done nothing but study philosophy was well-equipped to be a policy analyst, but I quickly won them over. After two fascinating years at EPA, I moved to the National Endowment for the Humanities, where I was able to use my philosophical background more directly as a Program Officer developing public outreach programs.

Once in Washington, I also pursued another dream ­ going to law school, something that had intrigued me since studying philosophy of law. Juggling my government job, and although, law school was not easy, I received my J.D. from Georgetown University in 1980 and was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar. Rather than pursuing a "traditional" legal career, my greatest longing was to finish my Ph.D., which I did the following year.

Altogether, it took 16 long years, from 1965-1981, to complete my formal college education, and for several of those years I was working full-time while going to school, I gained an enormous empathy with our students, many of whom are supporting themselves while going to school and are first-generation college students, as was I. My favorite students are those who are in school because they want to be there, because they recognize that it is the key to success in their lives, and because they are pursuing their own dreams.

I am grateful to CSU Long Beach for giving me a chance to teach philosophy, which is what I set out to do long ago in the sixties, although my path to a faculty appointment was long and circuitous. After ten years with the federal government, I spent another five years in administrative positions in California higher education (two years as Director of Sponsored Research/Research Administration at CSU Los Angeles and three years as the Associate Director of the then-new UC Humanities Research Institute). When CSULB advertised a tenure-track position in "philosophy of art and/or philosophy of law"-my two specialties-I thought the ad had my name written all over it. I joined the faculty here in 1990 and have enjoyed every moment since.

What is especially gratifying to me as a faculty member is the management style on our campus, a peculiar perspective, perhaps, borne of my own fifteen years as a bureaucrat and administrator. From chairs to deans to the president and vice-presidents, they seem to understand that the best way to motivate faculty is to give us the support and encouragement and, most importantly, the trust to let us run with our ideas. In turn, I think that helps our students, first and foremost. If faculty are enthusiastic and engaged in their work, it cannot help but infect our students with the excitement of learning and working. We also are very fortunate in having students who are easy to motivate and teach. They are ambitious. They are well-prepared. They know why they are in school. And that makes my job easy, fun, exciting, and immensely rewarding.

Julie Van Camp is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Philosophy Pre-Law Advisor. She received her A.B. cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, her M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, Philadelphia, and her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She teaches courses in philosophy of art, philosophy of law, and ethics. She developed a new Pre-Law Program in Philosophy in 1994, with several new courses, including an interdisciplinary/human diversity course on Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in American Law, an interdisciplinary course on Law, Philosophy, and the Humanities and a Pre-Law Philosophy Internship. In spring 1998, she taught a course in Philosophy of Art entirely on the Internet, with students from CSULB, New York City, and Brazil. She also teaches courses on Computer Ethics, Assisted Suicide, Philosophy of Law, Pragmatism, Ethics, and Criticism and Analysis of Dance. Her primary research interests are philosophical problems presented by art law, especially freedom of expression for artists and intellectual property. She also works on philosophical problems of dance. She was recently selected by her colleagues at CSULB as one of four recipients of the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award for 1998-99.