The end of Philosophy - and it`s all for profit

It was with great dismay that I heard about the possible closure of the philosophy department at the university of Hull, the establishment I attended the back in the 1970`s. Though I didn`t study philosophy, I was aware that the university had offered the subject since it opened in 1928, and the course it offered was prestigious, attracting students throughout the UK and abroad.

Philosophy has never been as popular in this country as on the continent, where many schools have mandatory lessons covering the subject. I`m not even sure if there is a GCSE philosophy course available in the UK, and I`ve heard that few schools offer the subject at A-level.

The sad truth is that many people seem to consider the subject, from a scholastic point of view, to be a waste of time. I recall how we used to joke amongst friends at university, facetiously asking them `what kind of job do you expect to get with that degree, are you really going to be a professional philosopher?` Juvenile humour perhaps, but many would agree that the subject has few practical applications in the workplace.

Humanities courses are generally cheaper to teach - no expensive science labs or state of the art IT systems are needed, with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher being all that is required to teach the subject. The emeritus professor of philosophy Kathleen Lennon has said that `Philosophy at Hull is financially viable - providing a healthy return for the university.`

What can be the reason for the university no longer accepting any joint honours students, and the fact that they have said, concerning philosophy, they `will not be recruiting new students` in 2019? The university`s registrar Jeanette Strachan gave, to my mind, a clear answer to this. In a statement to a local newspaper she said that the university aims to provide students with `a high-quality academic experience and ensure that their qualification holds value over time`.

Back when university fees didn`t exist people could afford to be more libertine with their educational choices. Nowadays of course things are rather different - with university education costing around £9000 per year perhaps students are being more discriminating in their selections, being careful to choose degrees that are likely to secure them a well paying job.

I can completely understand how, if you are going to be spending nearly thirty thousand pounds for a degree, you want to be careful to select one that will be remunerative, one that is most likely to lead you into a well paying job. I can`t help feeling a sense of sadness though - whatever happened to the pursuit of knowledge, learning for learning`s sake? Is the whole purpose of education to train individuals, making them into square pegs that will fit into the appropriate receptacles in the job market? Many people would say yes, that`s exactly what schools and universities are for - we need to form a competent and dedicated workforce, now more than ever, what with brexit on the horizon, and our somewhat tenuous place on the global stage.

If universities start dropping philosophy from their listings of which subjects will be next? Will other subjects in the humanities vanish from sight? English literature, history and the arts - will they be next to go? I can`t help feeling that this is the first step towards a dilution of cultural appreciation, and we should be very careful which subjects we allow to be removed.

The British Philosophical Association wrote an open letter to Hull university, lamenting the possible removal of the subject from its curriculum, along with explicating the benefits the degree confers:

`Philosophy degrees equip students with a wide range of highly valued and sought-after skills, and there is compelling evidence that graduate employers have a high regard for philosophy degree-holders`.

I have been part of many interview panels in different industries, and I can attest that my colleges and I always valued the inclusion of a humanities subject on a candidate`s CV. To us it often suggested a broader minded, more interesting individual, compared to someone who had just studied more `academic` subjects.

Philosophy itself comes from the Greek term - which has travelled down the millennia to us via the Latin word philosophia, literally meaning `love of wisdom.` How terrible it would be, if we turned away from this nobel pursuit - if we put profit before wisdom. Should we do so I wonder what the next treacherous step might be: profit before truth perhaps? Perish the thought