{"id":34965,"date":"2017-07-28T00:05:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T04:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=34965"},"modified":"2017-07-27T18:08:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T22:08:35","slug":"princeton-offer-class-intellectual-foundations-modern-conservatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/princeton-offer-class-intellectual-foundations-modern-conservatism\/","title":{"rendered":"Princeton to offer class on \u2018Intellectual Foundations of Modern Conservatism\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Princeton professor adds to intellectual diversity, one class at a time<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

One Princeton University professor, concerned over the deep dearth of opportunities for students at the Ivy League institution to explore the principles underpinning conservatism, has decided to do something to help fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Philosophy Professor Thomas Kelly<\/a> will offer a freshman seminar this fall called \u201cIntellectual Foundations of Modern Conservatism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat first interested me in offering this particular course was my growing conviction that, in at least some respects, Princeton University is something of a progressive bubble, where students are not really exposed to the best arguments that can be made for various heterodox political and social views,\u201d Kelly wrote to The College Fix<\/em> in an email.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kelly (pictured<\/em>), formerly of the University of Notre Dame, said whenever he voiced concerns about a lack of intellectual diversity at Princeton, a common response he received further deepened his qualms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I expressed concerns about viewpoint diversity at Princeton,\u201d Kelly explained, \u201cthe stock response that I received was: \u2018conservative views and arguments are well-represented here; after all, we have Robbie George!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Princeton Professor Robert George, an outspoken and politically active social conservative well-known even outside of academia, does contribute to intellectual diversity at Princeton, Kelly said. Yet, to say Princeton is intellectually diverse due to one scholar\u2019s presence is underwhelming at best, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that it\u2019s educationally ideal when an entire political philosophy or cluster of ideas is so closely associated, at least locally, with one individual,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

Conservatism as a school of thought is varied, Kelly notes, and it encompasses social conservatives, libertarian conservatives, criminal justice conservatives, and many others.<\/p>\n

Through his course<\/a>, students will be exposed to many different facets of conservatism, and even explore the relationships between and tensions within different strands of conservatism.<\/p>\n

Among the books Kelly plans to assign are Thomas Sowell\u2019s \u201cAffirmative Action Around the World,\u201d Samuel Huntington\u2019s \u201cWho Are We? The Challenges to America\u2019s National Identity,\u201d and James Q. Wilson\u2019s \u201cThinking About Crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike all of the readings for the course, I selected these because I think that they argue intelligently and in a challenging way for views that in my judgment are sometimes given short shrift at Princeton,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

Several of the other freshman seminars offered this fall specifically touch on the current political climate, most notably \u201cAmerican Politics in the Age of Donald Trump\u201d and \u201cTrumpland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said he hopes his course will offer something other than the latest news about the Trump administration and its critics.<\/p>\n

Rather than focus on the nitty-gritty of day to day political battles, Kelly noted he wants to \u201capproach controversial social and political issues in an intellectually deeper way, one that attempts to reconstruct the very best arguments that can be made for rival views, while abstracting away from potentially distracting features having to do with particular politicians and their personalities, the rival political parties, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a class of only fifteen freshmen (the course is a freshman seminar), Kelly predicts this depth of intellectual inquiry will be possible. He said he hopes and expects that the wide variety of political issues studied will spark interest from students with diverse political views.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn sum, I saw a way in which I could potentially contribute, in a small way, to enhancing intellectual diversity at Princeton, so I\u2019m going to try my best to do that, in a manner that makes for an educationally worthwhile experience for interested students,\u201d he told The Fix.<\/em><\/p>\n

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IMAGE: Shutterstock<\/p>\n

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