The Elective Mind

Philosophy and the Undergraduate Degree

Réal Fillion, Monique Fillion

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English

University of Ottawa Press
03 January 2022

Moral & social purpose of education

Series: Philosophica

The Elective Mind discusses the relevance of philosophy courses within the undergraduate curriculum as integral to the self-formation that is at the heart of a liberal education. The objective is to provide a historically layered view of what it can still mean to study for its own sake.

The elective university classroom is important because the course of study is chosen out of personal interest and enthusiasm, as opposed to being primarily governed by predetermined disciplinary objectives. It engages the student's mind directly and freely, and counters the overly specialized minds favoured by the contemporary university as well as the commodification of its degrees.

The discussion builds on the distinction put forward by Raymond Williams between a dominant culture (in this case, university study as contributing to research and/or marketable degrees) and alternative and/or oppositional cultures that have both residual and emergent dimensions. The elective stream of university study is treated as alternative and oppositional to the dominant culture.

The elective university classroom is examined as a combination of a classroom, students, texts, and professors. Each element is explored in terms of its alternative/residual significance as illustrated through the history of philosophy: the classroom and students through the life and death of Socrates; texts through the origins of the university in medieval scholasticism; the professor in the Humboldtian reform of the university at the beginning of the nineteenth century in Berlin.

By: Réal Fillion
Cover design or artwork by: Monique Fillion
Imprint: University of Ottawa Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 127mm,
ISBN: 9780776629551
ISBN 10: 0776629557
Series: Philosophica
Pages: 168
Publication Date: 03 January 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Part One – Meeting Place: Socrates in the Agora Part Two – Placing the Text Part Three – Professors in Place Conclusion Works Cited

Ral Fillion has taught philosophy for almost 30 years and is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sudbury, part of the Laurentian University Federation. He is the author of Multicultural Dynamics and the Ends of History: Exploring Kant, Hegel, and Marx and Foucault and the Indefinite Work of Freedom, both also published by the University of Ottawa Press.

Reviews for The Elective Mind: Philosophy and the Undergraduate Degree

Free from the demands of program requirements and the pragmatic, societal pressure to reduce education to professional training and other such demands, ...elective courses offer a unique opportunity, the author argues, to reflect on the human condition and cultivate the student's human experience. The book intends not just to describe this predicament, but to exemplify the kind of text that can animate such learning. -- Bruce Gilbert * Chair of Philosophy and Liberal Arts, Full Professor, Bishop's University *