A Seminary For Nonbelievers: Is A. C. Grayling Creating His Own Religion?

[rug]

A.C. Grayling has an impressive resume. He has been a philosophy professor, a representative to the UN Human Rights Council, the Honorary Secretary of the Aristotelian Society, and the author of twenty-some books.

He has even written his own bible: The Good Book, a 600-page compendium of his favorite philosophical texts, released last March. As if that weren’t enough, though, he’ll soon assume yet another title: the founding headmaster at the New College of Humanities, in London. With some of the world’s most prominent atheists signed up to teach—including Richard Dawkins, Peter Singer, Niall Ferguson, Laurence Krauss, and Steven Pinker—the school looks like a seminary for nonbelievers.

One doesn’t rack up so many honors without attracting a few detractors. For those who insist that Grayling is power-hungry and overhyped, the New College of the Humanities makes for a succinct case study. It will be a for-profit institution, elite and very expensive; its tuition is twice that of British public universities, including Cambridge and Oxford. Grayling once stated that “university education should be provided free of charge to all those suitably qualified for it,” but now he is charging students $30,000 a year.

In the United States, expensive private universities are common, but in the UK there is only one precedent—Buckingham University—and Grayling’s outfit is not only private, but for-profit. Terry Eagleton, one of Grayling’s (and Richard Dawkins’s) most persistent critics, has called the new university “odious” and “disgustingly elitist”; professors at Birbeck college have accused Grayling, their former colleague, for launching an assault on public education; protesters set off smoke bombs during his reading at a London bookstore; there were several online petitions circling through the web. The fact that the original faculty list included only one woman did not help the image of elitism and exclusion.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/4960/a_seminary_for_nonbelievers:_is_a._c._grayling_creating_his_own_religion/

[Lost-in-FL]

1. "This school, the Mouse argues, will be equivalent to a fundamentalist training camp for atheists. "

:rofl: :spray: Seriously?

How is it that religion sponsored higher education institutions are not called "fundamentalist training camps"??

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. "The Mouse" hasn't looked very far at the list of the Professoriate

Since they consider religiosity to be the product of a feeble mind and a lack of critical thinking, it seems difficult to imagine how they would consider the CV of a religious professor seriously when looking to fill teaching roles. And how would they respond to a student candidate in an interview who professed a deep belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus, when asked about how they formed their ethical views.

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta – Economics

Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

Academicians

Dasgupta Partha Sarathi
...

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdscien/own/documents/passacademicians.html

The members do not have to be Catholics - there are several Jewish members and one Hindu - but they do have to have ‘good moral character’: “No one knows what this means, to be honest. I am glad someone thinks that I have one because I certainly don’t!” It remains a mystery how the original thirty members were picked and now, when nominations are put forward for new members, potential names are scrutinised by the Secretariat of State to check that there is ‘no obstacle’ to their becoming, effectively, a representative of the Catholic Church.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/culture/pontificalacademy/

I'd suggest Sir Partha is the Hindu mentioned, looking at the list of names. Clearly he is not against working with mainline religious bodies, anyway (he has an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Louvain too).

[edhopper]

2. A different view

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/07/give-grayling-new-college-humanities-chance

[trotsky]

3. ...

"But shall we learn more about what it hopes to achieve, and how it proposes to achieve it, before we greylist, boycott or hang its academics in effigy?"

No way. They're a bunch of filthy obnoxious atheists and they pose a threat to my religion, therefore we ATTACK!

[struggle4progress]

5. What is it, exactly? It looks like way for some folk can get a Univ of London degree

NCH offers:
preparation for a University of London degree, plus the Diploma of New College
a staff-student ratio better than 1:10
personal attention and one-to-one tutorials ...
http://www.nchum.org/

The degree offerings seem limited:

You can choose from eight degrees drawn from five subject areas, which are:
Law
Economics
History
English Literature
Philosophy

We will prepare students for degrees in:
Law LLB
Economics BSc
Literature with History BA
Literature with Philosophy BA
History with Literature BA
History with Philosophy BA
Philosophy with Literature BA
Philosophy with History BA ...
http://www.nchum.org/courses

There's a logic course for philosophy, and a few math and stats courses for the econ folk, but not much emphasis on science and math otherwise

[Lost-in-FL]

6. Cosmology and Science Literacy sounds like Science to me. nt

[struggle4progress]

7. I listed the degrees they offer, and I described what you'll see if you look at

their lists of what courses should be taken in preparation of exams for those degrees

I couldn't find a course catalog -- but maybe that's not surprising, since they're using the University of London syllabi to prepare students for the final University of London exams

Under the European system, students typically specialize earlier than under the American system -- so I wouldn't expect as many distribution requires there as here

Lawrence Krauss is indeed listed as being a professor of Cosmology and Science Literacy at New College, but he's also listed on their webpage as "foundation professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Professor at Arizona State University" -- which presumably means that most of the time he will be thousands of miles away

We're told "Lawrence will be Professor of Science teaching cosmology and particle physics on the Science Literacy course" and that "Richard Dawkins ... will be Professor of Evolutionary Biology teaching on the required Science Literacy course." So the college will offer its students a Science Literacy course

Evolutionary biology and cosmology are, of course, both beautiful subjects -- but I have to wonder if the law students (say) wouldn't profit more from a good strong dose of some basic chemistry and physics, instead of a "Science Literacy" course

[Jim__]

10. It makes sense that a college of the humanities would emphasize the humanities.

I have been reading a lot over the last few years about a de-emphasis of the humanities in US colleges; and I believe England has been experiencing a similar drop in interest in the humanities. A school that emphasizes this area seems like a good idea.

[struggle4progress]

12. No languages. No performing or visual arts. And, of course, no religion.

So "literature" presumably means "literature in English," and "history" means "history in English," and "law" means "law in English." It is difficult for me to imagine English literature without a lonely Shakespearean player strutting and fretting his hour upon the stage

Grayling has apparently resigned his post at Birkbeck College, University of London, to found this for-profit school, using University of London syllabi, to prepare students for University of London exams

The University of London has an institute of art, a school of drama, and an academy of music. It has an internationally regarded school of economics. It offers graduate degrees in a variety of subjects in both the sciences and humanities: french, german, spanish, russian, chinese, arabic, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, archaeology ... It also has actual facilities

[laconicsax]

8. Short answer: no

[struggle4progress]

9. The New College doesn't seem to have any definite facilities yet, and the professors

seem mostly to have academic positions elsewhere, which it is hard to imagine them abandoning; for example,

Professor Simon Blackburn ... is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and Research Professor at the University of North Carolina ...

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta ... is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge ...

Professor Ronald Dworkin ... is a Professor of Law and Philosophy at University College London and Professor of Law at New York University ...

Professor Lawrence M Krauss ... is foundation professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Professor at Arizona State University ...

Professor Sir Christopher Ricks ... is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University ...

Professor Adrian Zuckerman ... is Professor of Civil Procedure at the University of Oxford ...

http://www.nchum.org/who-we-are/the-professoriate

I didn't list any of the "visiting" professors here

[LeftishBrit]

11. I don't think he's creating a new religion

I do, however, fear that he is betraying the principles of British public education to create a very expensive intellectual finishing-school for the rich, with professors who are known for their TV celebrity status which may or in many cases may not mean that they are outstanding teachers or researchers; and that he is to some extent using the reputation and resources of London University in general, and Birkbeck College in particular, for his own institution's purposes, and without the agreement of the existing institutions.

I also have a visceral revulsion against the involvement of Niall Ferguson, who as well as being a hawk, an economic right-winger, and a professional promoter of British Empire nostalgia, is also the author of an article which should repel all opponents of the religious right:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-4-4-04-eurabia.html?src=pm

Expounding the 'Eurabia' myth created by the Europaean xenophobic right, and in the process arguing that religious tolerance and the decline of Christianity are making us easy prey to Islamism supposedly taking over our countries.

You don't have to be religious to be concerned about this new institution; you just have to be against the ever-increasing privatization of British public services. Here is a view from an atheist blogger at Birkbeck:

http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2011/06/ac-grayling-launches-private-university.html



'Grayling has defended the move as a response to "the economic reality" of cuts to public humanities funding, saying "either you stand on the sidelines deploring what is happening or you jump in and do something about it"'

Actually there's another alternative: you can fight against this political evil! Grayling and his faculty members all have good posts already; it is not as though they needed to start this university to stay off the breadline.


'The Church Mouse even asks whether it will take a fair approach towards religious believers in admissions.'

Oh, I'm sure it will take a fair approach to religious believers. I'm just not so sure that it will take such a fair approach to people who don't happen to have oodles of dosh!


The point is that Grayling is not founding this institution *because he's an atheist*. Although the choice of individual professors may be influenced to some degree by atheism, the reasons for founding the institution are because of the cold climate for universities in general, and the humanities in particular, due to government cuts and creeping privatization. Sadly, Grayling has decided to deal with this climate by joining it rather than fighting it.