Doubt and the Demands of Democratic Citizenship

A university can be to a political philosopher what a good laboratory is to a biologist. This is even more the case if one happens to be an academic administrator as well. I have had the privilege of being both. I have spent thirty-five years of my life in universities studying and teaching philosophy and for fifteen of those years I also have served in administrative roles. Through the interactions between my philosophical interests and administrative responsibilities I have come to appreciate the challenges of education in a democracy as well as education's democratic possibilities.

Philosophers from Plato to Dewey have recognized that education is political theory in practice. For better or worse, the state and education are joined. Plato understood that to achieve the ideal Republic he had to control the content of the education of philosopher kings and kick Homer out of the curriculum. Political revolutionaries and reformers have always known this. Controlling education is only marginally second to capturing the offices of the press and controlling the airwaves for revolutionary success. So what better place for a politically minded philosopher to be than a provost's office? There are obvious advantages to this vantage point for both the philosopher and the administrator.