Keele Philosophy Fights Back

Keele Student Union

A success story or a sign of worse things to come? Let’s say both, just to be on the safe side. In what must have been a whirlwind week for the Department of Philosophy at Keele University – the story having only been broken by national news sources less than ten days ago and calls of victory already ringing out this weekend – staff, students and alumni of Keele and elsewhere successfully united to overturn the decision to remove Philosophy from Keele as part of a cost-cutting exercise. After the first signs of movement, regarding the September 2011 intake of philosophy students, in which Brian Leiter quite rightly detected an as-yet-provisional tone, an official statement from the university has indicated a significant shift in the right direction:

Philosophy’s Debt to Society

Barrels of Money, oil on canvas painting by Victor Dubreuil, c. 1897

Spare a thought for Jim. Who’s Jim, you ask? Jim is a man with dreams, dreams which we of all people should be able to relate to. After losing his job in the public sector, Jim now has to decide what to do with his future. As a student he took his degree in Philosophy and English, and has since then continued to pursue philosophy in his spare time. Now he has the opportunity to make philosophy his career, by going back to university and with time, effort and money, one day become a philosopher by trade. But, Jim worries, is chasing after his dream worth it in this most cynically materialistic of ages? Is combining the best of both worlds – the fabled “job satisfaction” – really tenable for Jim? With the help of the Guardian, Jim called upon the nation for advice about his dilemma – who in turn seem to have encouraged him to follow his heart.