In this book the author directly confronts an ever more popular suspicion - that a university education in the humanities and social sciences is actually an ‘elitist’ indoctrination into ‘leftist’ or ‘liberal’ views. Having taught them for nearly forty years, Kitching shows that, on the contrary, these subjects lead one to question all political and social views (left-wing, right-wing, ‘elite’, ‘popular’, religious, secular) and to be sceptical of all the beliefs about human identity (whether racial, gender, national or class) to which they give rise."
This book is divided into 35 brief sections and can be read as a stand-alone discussion of some topic, or as a step in a sequential argument. This modular structure makes it an excellent teaching text for students. Written in an accessible, even colloquial style, which gives it the broadest possible appeal. All its arguments are illustrated by a host of ‘everyday’ linguistic, sociological and psychological examples. These not only enliven the book but demonstrate that philosophical ideas are most persuasive when used to illuminate broader phenomena. Discussing a range of contemporary social and political issues, this book explores individualism and postmodernism; nationalism; globalisation and its relationship to growing economic inequality and political polarisation – which are currently the subject of fierce debate, inside and outside the university.
It appeals to a mass of social science students and academics, as well as philosophers.
In this book the author directly confronts an ever more popular suspicion - that a university education in the humanities and social sciences is actually an ‘elitist’ indoctrination into ‘leftist’ or ‘liberal’ views.
1. So What? 1
2. Who For?
3. Academics Impotent or Potent?
4. Academics
Pernicious or Virtuous?
5. Universities and Knowledge (and Wisdom?)
6. Known
Unknowns or Unknown Unknowns?
7. Critical Thinking
8. Cool Views
9. Doubts,
Philosophical and Non-Philosophical
10. The Crunch
11. Patriotism and Me
12.
Globalisation and Me
13. Political Ignorance
14. Knowing Better
15.
Patriotism, Globalisation, and Me
16. Patriotism and Me, Yet More
17. An
Imagined Time Machine
18. How Come?
19. Community and Money
20. Modernity 1
21. Modernity 2
22. Modernity 3
23. Whos Who
24. Modernity and Knowledge
25.
Modernity and Capitalism
26. Watts Up
27. Nasty Catches
28. Back to the
Campus
29. Really
30. History and Philosophy
31. Words and Doings
32. Social
Relations
33. Another Evil Demon
34. So What? 2
35. Appendix. Questions and
Answers. Select Bibliography
Gavin Kitching is an internationally distinguished scholar and researcher in the fields of Third World development, agrarian and rural development, and the philosophy and methodology of social science. He is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Social Sciences Academy.
