Philosophers forget the rest of the world

We think too western. The Elective Courses at Dutch universities are too focused on Western philosophy. Master student Philosophy Joke van der Ven says this after research for her master studies. What’s the status of philosophy in Tilburg?

The Philosophy student touches an interesting point. Why are there almost exclusively European and North American philosophers included in the curriculum? Van der Ven: “It’s like there’s no philosophical thinking in the rest of the world, like we think that that part of philosophy does not matter.” She asked five deans and study directors at Dutch universities. As it turns out, they don’t know why the curriculum is so Western-minded. “If students ask us why we don’t teach non-Western philosophy, we should be able to give a clear answer. As of now, we can’t,” said Jeroen Linssen, study director in Nijmegen.

Joke van der Ven studied the curricula from eight universities (Tilburg University included) for her master study Philosophy in Groningen. She now calls upon students to ask their teachers the same question: why? She made a Facebook page for the goal.

Philosophy in Tilburg
Does Tilburg have an answer? Univers asked Bert van de Ven, study director in Tilburg. He has two answers to the why-question. “One, you have to make choices. Tilburg chooses Western philosophy, we could also make Eastern philosophy our focus point. There’s nothing against that, but we did not choose it.” How conscious was this decision? “We didn’t give it much thought,” Van de Ven says. “Just like music, philosophy is anchored in the local culture. Philosophy has a institutional and cultural embedding in the Western world. That explains the dominance, just like classical music is dominant in our conservatories.” On top of that: “Since a good education in Western philosophy is already very comprehensive, we have decided to focus on this.”

Two: “The Western philosophy joins our cultural traditions, and also our development of a democratic, constitutional society. What our Western world is, cannot be understood fully without studying our philosophical roots.”

Limitation
Is this choice a limitation? Van de Ven: “In a literal sense, yes. We don’t teach all philosophical traditions. We only include non-Western philosophy to a limited extent. This is only named in relation to Schopenhauer and Heidegger.” But does this mean philosophers forget the rest of the world? Van de Ven doesn’t think so: “Especially in the tradition of the Western philosophy we think about the meaning of globalization and justice, and about the relation between cultures and cosmopolitan citizenship.”