Life itself, the universe and everything that's relevant - Comments

Given Prof. Fuller's support for creationism, one can only wonder what his proposed new 'common core' is going to consist of. His championing of postmodernism presumably will mean anything goes and we can expect to see graduates undertaking homeopathy, voodoo and anything else that takes his/their fancy. Or is he rejecting all this for a pre-defined, 'grand narrative' core of enlightenment values..surely not. Or perhaps, following his recent 'ah you died 24 hours ago. now I can say what the hell I think about you without fear of repercussion' type obituary of Norm Levitt he'll be championing courses in diplomacy and grief studies.

Interesting points space cadet, but don't shoot the messenger. Good to see some focus on curriculum even if the last remark about another institution is less than generous/collegial.

There are interesting and important questions regarding the advantages of a more general approach to curriculum and indeed this has long been debated in the history of universities. Perhaps what this recent flurry of activity in institutions such as Harvard, Melbourne, Aberdeen and elsewhere suggests is that there is considerable validity in revisiting the debate in a time of 'mass' higher education, rapid communications and economic instability. Whether adding core modules, identifying themes (as per Harvard, Melbourne, etc) or favouring particular pedagogical approaches (eg Maastricht) are quite what is appropriate or indeed sufficiently imaginative to respond adequately to the challenges is of course a key question.

I am thinking of one course that is absolutely necessary, the Law. There should be emphasis on the history of Law, on Equity and, no doubt - on the law of Fiduciary. With govt. and various organisations (even charities) increasingly intruding into private life, and all sorts of officials taking one's fate into their hands, making decisions affecting all aspects of your life, people need and must know that most of these officials have more than one duty toward them, and these duties are all from the law of fiduciaries. British law made outstanding contribution into this law, which is associated also with Equity. The much celebrated individual judgements of British judges must be, all of them, taught to students and discussed. On the other side, not a moment of such course will be unhelpful in raising students' intellect.

Thanks for the responses. I do think general education is a very important issue. But if you read the article closely, you'll see that I stress the role of how knowledge is produced and distributed -- and in particular how it's migrating to digital forms. An increasing amount of knowledge originates in cyberspace or on video -- and rarely makes it into books, journals and the other conventional academic modes. Universities need to catch up with that intellectual migration to new media or be left behind. Since you seem to know about me in other guises, one of the interesting things that links ID and Levitt is the importance of cyberspace for their promotion, since neither is nearly so important to what's taught in normal university courses or discussed in academic books/journals. In that respect, a parallel universe of knowledge production is being created that has relatively little contact with university-based knowledge. For me the general education proposal is a way for universities to regain their advantage.

Perhaps the values passed onto students at Warwick will include not paying off grudges against recently deceased academic foes in what some might think is a spiteful manner. The following personal response to Norman Levitt's deaths can be found on Professor Steve Fuller blog http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/swfuller/entry/norman_levitt_rip/ A quote, not, I believe, taken out of context :- "I believe that Levitt’s ultimate claim to fame may rest on his having been as a pioneer of cyber-fascism, whereby a certain well-educated but (for whatever reason) academically disenfranchised group of people have managed to create their own parallel universe of what is right and wrong in matters of science, which is backed up (at least at the moment) by nothing more than a steady stream of invective. Their resentment demands a scapegoat -- and 'postmodernists' function as Jews had previously."

I'm afraid I actually do believe that. And nothing in the blog persuades me otherwise. But sure, you're welcome to continue the Levitt-like tradition of baiting those you disagree with. But frankly I would rather hear what you think about General Education.

The fact that people can no longer stick to discussing issues at hand and resort to trying to discredit a person on anything unrelated so long as it's controversial shows there is a profound need for a general education that includes media literacy (now synonymous with digital literacy). When I was at Bard, every incoming student went through their "Language and Thinking" seminar and this has been the basis of most of my critical thinking though out life. The fact that programs like these are now the reserve of only select institutions instead of being a requirement across the board is the main reason we need to establish a solid core curriculum.