Back to the Mothership

So, the little creatures are going back into Philosophy, are they?

Once scoffed at as a luxury major, philosophy is being embraced at Rutgers and other universities by a new generation of college students who are drawing modern-day lessons from the age-old discipline as they try to make sense of their world, from the morality of the war in Iraq to the latest political scandal. The economic downturn has done little, if anything, to dampen this enthusiasm among students, who say that what they learn in class can translate into practical skills and careers. On many campuses, debate over modern issues like war and technology is emphasized over the study of classic ancient texts...

“If I were to start again as an undergraduate, I would major in philosophy,” said Matthew Goldstein, the CUNY chancellor, who majored in mathematics and statistics. “I think that subject is really at the core of just about everything we do. If you study humanities or political systems or sciences in general, philosophy is really the mother ship from which all of these disciplines grow.”

Nationwide, there are more colleges offering undergraduate philosophy programs today than a decade ago (817, up from 765), according to the College Board. Some schools with established programs like Texas A&M, Notre Dame, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, now have twice as many philosophy majors as they did in the 1990s...

“That whole deep existential torment... It’s good for getting girlfriends.”

[Thanks, Wes]

...Children stop yer nu sin' unless yer renderin' fun,
The mother ship the mother ship,
The mother ship's the one.
The blimp the blimp,
The tapes uh trip it's uh trailin' tail,
It's traipse'n along behind the blimp the blimp....
- Captain Beefheart, "The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica)," from Trout Mask Replica