As the parent of two daughters majoring in Philosophy, one of whom was recently named a Rhodes Scholar and both of whom aspire to be university professors, I feel compelled to comment on Professor Robert Brandon's reaction to the "findings" of the Duke Conservative Union on the political affiliations of Duke faculty in certain Humanities departments. The one course I insisted my daughters take as freshmen in college without regard to their choice of major is Logic.
Any student of Elementary Logic knows that J.S. Mill's observation that "Stupid people are generally conservative" does not imply that "People who are conservative are generally stupid." Such an inference would be a formal fallacy. Even if this were not the case, the meanings of the terms "conservative" and "liberal" have changed since the time of Mr. Mill, as I am sure Professor Brandon knows, however entertaining he may find Mill's observation to be in the present context. Many of today's so-called "conservatives" would not be conservative in Mill's sense, but "liberal" in the classical sense of the term.
One wonders whether J.S. Mill, despite being "a bit smarter than average," would be hired at Duke given his expressed belief that his country (in his case England) had a duty to intervene in foreign politics in support of "freedom." In his day, Mr. Mill was able to express his political opinion and be elected rector of St. Andrew's University. If he were an aspiring academic today, I wonder if he would dare be so bold.
There could be a "benign" explanation for the homogeneous nature of the political affiliations of Duke liberal arts faculty (e.g. one might choose to register Democrat or Independent regardless of political philosophy in order to vote in the more meaningful primary races in North Carolina).
However, rather than simply resting with the observation that he did not "know" and did not "care" about the politics of his colleagues, Professor Brandon seems to imply that they could not be conservative as they are not stupid. They are, in fact, "smarter than average." It is not difficult to draw the conclusion that he would assume an individual to be stupid if he knew him or her to be conservative and therefore would not consider hiring that person, perhaps without even considering the value of their scholarly output.
Maybe it is a good thing that our children, despite the fact that they would never classify themselves as "conservative," are using their Duke tuition benefit to study Philosophy elsewhere (Northwestern and University of Chicago) despite being accepted at Duke. I would hate to see them encouraged to stereotype other individuals' thinking, and therefore the relative value of their ideas and opinions, after their father and I spent their pre-college years stressing the danger of so doing.
Mary Bejan
Duke Parent
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