Democracy needs Education in Ideas

David Smith, a lecturer in American history at Baylor University, wrote an interesting column for the The Dallas Morning News on May 11, 2018. Here's one way he puts the argument:

Unlike accounting, marketing or computer programming, which are skills, human rights, a free press and democratic government are ideas.  Consequently, if those who believe in democracy don't stay conversant with ideas and how they should influence us, an appreciation of the subtleties that allow democracy to work will dissolve. We're already seeing it every time we turn on the news.

Here's the whole column:

Democracy Dies in Materialism and the U.S. is at Risk

Shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump, in what amounted to an ongoing editorial about his administration, The Washington Post situated the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" right below the paper's masthead. It's a bold pronouncement:  not entirely inaccurate, but one that falls far short of encompassing the broader threat to the democratic order in the United States.

It's more accurate to say that democracy dies in materialism, by which I mean our utilitarian attitude today that knowledge is rooted only in marketable skills. It changes our perception of democracy from being a way to secure abstract rights and liberties into a means by which we can have fewer limits on what we obtain, measure each other by what we have and block those who disagree with us.

A materialistic view doesn't equip us to think deeply about human rights, civil rights, the role of government or human flourishing.  It cripples our ability to think historically and critically, and so reinforces the tribalism that's already transforming our politics into isolated echo chambers of certainty and hostility. 

As a teacher I see this constantly. "I love history and I would major in it, but my parents won't let me," is one of the saddest things a student has ever said to me. What she meant was that she loved it and wanted to study it but her parents insisted she get a degree that would get her a job.

Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) DROP-IN SESSION

Learn more about ATIC at this “Come & Go” session.

Wednesday, April 18 from 1:30 – 3 p.m.

Ronk Lecture Hall, Schar College of Education

ATIC offers 14-week in-residence internships near Dayton in either Intelligence to become an all-source intelligence analyst or Cyber Data Security to become a cybersecurity analyst

During an internship at ATIC, you will:

• Learn from leaders in the Intelligence community in organizations such as CIA, FBI, NSA, DEA.
• Learn by doing, discovering and exploring cybersecurity and data analysis in an experiential learning environment.
• Earn 12 semester hours of credit.
• Be eligible for Secret or Top Secret Security Clearance.

www.ashland.edu/ATIC

BE CAREER READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Ashland University’s Partnership with the Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) opens doors for your career as either an Intelligence Analyst or as a Cyber Analyst.

Who can participate in the Intelligence Program?
Students from many majors are needed in the Intelligence Community, for example majors in Criminal Justice, History/Political Science, Math, Computer Sciences, Natural Sciences, Accounting, Economics, Communication Studies, Foreign Languages, Psychology, Philosophy, English and others. Students must be 20 years of age, a U.S. citizen and have no felony convictions.

Who can participate in the Cyber Data Program?
Most likely Computer Science or Information Systems majors or minors. Students must be 18 years of age, and complete a criminal background check. The benefits of an internship at ATIC continue after completion of the internship as ATIC staff helps expedite the process to get graduates on the job.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES
Additional information and the approval form may be found on the College of Arts and Sciences pages at Ashland.edu/ATIC.

Best of Luck to Our Majors Presenting at URCA!

The History and Political Science Department wishes its following majors the best of luck as they present their work at the 2018 CAS Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium on Wednesday!

Rebecca Young, Music & History major

alongside Drew Berlin, Samantha Eron, Gracie Fumic, Kendra Garver, Mia Kardotzke, Maya Rickard, Anna Rivero, and Corey Turpin

My Charming Mademoiselle from Act II of The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti

"These students from Opera Workshop class in the music department will demonstrate their knowledge of classical vocal techniques, stage acting and modern music through the live performance of a scene from the opera The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti."

Dennis J Clark, Political Science major

Machiavellian Faith and Foundings 

"The founding of a regime—one wholly new—represents the birth of new modes and orders under one who has risen from private citizen to prince. Niccolò Machiavelli discusses such foundings in chapter six of The Prince; he examines the actions and character of those who found new principalities at the highest level, those to whom he refers as “prophets”1: Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, and Theseus. I intend to outline how these princes are similar and where they differ in their actions, and what those  similarities and differences reveal about what Machiavelli believes can be learned from the example of these men."

Sabrina Maristela, Political Science, Spanish, & Philosophy major

Machiavellian Faith and Foundings 

"John Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic poem published in 1667 and revised in 1674 that explicates the “Fortunate Fall” of man...I examine a scene in Pandemonium in Book X after Eve’s temptation and man’s punishment to reveal the just nature of divine punishment and identify that the distinction between Hellish and Earthly punishments is a result of God’s omni-benevolence."

Jacquelyn Dambrosio, History & Political Science major

Aristotle and Machiavelli on Fortune as a Means to Happiness

"In my presentation, I will be comparing and contrasting Book One of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics with chapter twenty-five of Machiavelli’s The Prince. I will be elaborating on their views of the importance of fortune in achieving the highest human goal."

The Case for Majoring in the Liberal Arts - Once Again

In "If You Want Your Child to Succeed, Don’t Sell Liberal Arts Short," Michael Zinn, a creative strategist at Digital Surgeons, makes the case for the liberal arts. Among other things, he quotes Albert Einstein to the effect that the "value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”

Here is the whole column from the Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2018. p. A13: 

Critical-thinking skills are useful in any profession, and not all classes are obscurantist or politicized.

It’s college admissions season, and every parent is mulling the perennial question: “What major will help my child get a good job?”

Standard answers today invariably center on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, often referred to as STEM. Given the skyrocketing costs of higher education, parents and students alike can be forgiven for viewing a college degree as a passport into the professional world, and STEM majors are seen as the best route to professional success.

But my advice is to let your child know that a liberal-arts degree can be a great launching pad for a career in just about any industry. Majoring in philosophy, history or English literature will not consign a graduate to a fate of perpetual unemployment. Far from it. I say this as a trained classicist—yes, you can still study ancient Greek and Latin—who decided to make a transition into the tech world.

I am far from alone. There are plenty of entrepreneurs, techies and private-equity managers with liberal-arts degrees. Damon Horowitz, a cofounder of the search engine Aardvark, holds a doctorate in philosophy. Slack founder Stewart Butterfield and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman both earned master’s degrees in philosophy. The startup where I work employs computer programmers who studied musical composition and philosophy as undergraduates.

Throughout history it has been common for people to study subjects with no immediate relationship to their intended professions. In antiquity, education was intended to enrich students’ lives. Pragmatic benefits such as rhetorical ability, logical reasoning and business skills were welcome byproducts of a good education. The phrase “liberal arts” comes from the Latin word liberalis, meaning “worthy of a free person.” A liberal-arts education gives someone the freedom to participate fully in civic life.

Model Arab League 2017

The delegation from the Department of History and Political Science to the 2018 Model Arab League competition at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. Ashland represented Lebanon and were led by Dr. Greg McBrayer,

Global Education Grant

The use of Latin in the Civil War era

A recent article by Andrew Dinan in The Classical Journal (Vol 113, No. 2) argues that Latin was quite widely used in the United States during the Civil War.  The article describes Latin poems, inscriptions, letters, and reports and essays.  Among them is an inscription at a Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was designed "to express, though imperfectly, the gratitude felt to those of our countrymen who have given their lives to achieve the greatest moral and social results of modern times."  The inscription nicely sums up the Civil War:

AMERICA CONSERVATA
AFRICA LIBERATA
POPULO MAGNO ASSURGENTE
HEROUM SANGUINE FUSO

Anti-Slavery Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library

Here is an opportunity to do some interesting work with primary sources in American history. The Boston Public Library is calling for volunteers to help transcribe their extensive collection of handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activists in the 19th century into texts that can be more easily read and researched by students, teachers, historians, and big data applications. See the website here: antislaverymanuscripts.

South Korea Study Abroad Meeting

The New Lyceum

A group of recently graduated History and Political Science majors and Ashbrook Scholars has started an interesting new online journal called The New Lyceum.  They have already published quite a few good articles by current and former students on all kinds of cultural, political, moral, and historical topics.  For a sample, try this nice analysis by Connor Murnane, of the Netflix series Deadwood.  Peruse many others here.

According to the website, The New Lyceum

provides analysis of current issues that affect the body politic. It does so out of a belief that man is reasonable – he can come to understand truth through rational discourse."  Expanding on this idea, the editors write that "Reason alone distinguishes Man from all other life. By the power of reason, he can discern truth. A natural byproduct of reason is disagreement. Civil disagreement leads to discourse that destroys poorly developed arguments and nurtures those arguments that lead to truth. Sadly, our culture has lost the ability to respectfully disagree. Some people only want to converse with those who think like they do. Others believe that to criticize another’s point of view is to attack their character and thus avoid serious discussions altogether. This has impoverished the political and cultural life of our country, and an effort to revive public discourse is necessary.

The New Lyceum seeks to aid that revival. We will write on a wide variety of issues, and our authors may defend opposing sides on those issues. Our articles will be written as arguments. They will not belittle and will aim to persuade those who disagree.

Nicely done Joey, Nick, Josh, and James! 

Prof. Sikkenga on Sabbatical

Professor Jeff Sikkenga is spending his sabbatical this year in California. While driving across the country for two weeks, he and his family stopped at a number of historical sites, including Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois (see the photo) and Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Driving that far with kids in a crowded car renewed his appreciation of Hobbes' political thought. 

 
During the fall he lived in Monterey and was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This semester he is a visiting professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy in Malibu. While on leave, he is working on a book on John Locke's A Letter Concerning Toleration and finishing a revised second edition of History of American Political Thought, for which he wrote a chapter on the political thought of Barack Obama.