Putting the Community back into Philosophy

Academic philosophers use the term public philosophy to mean making ivory-tower discourse available to a public audience. When a philosopher’s talk is open to the public, it means the presentation is technically available to the public, not that the content is intelligible to members of the public. And that’s a problem. Cicero said that Socrates called philosophy down from the heavens and set her in our cities. With Socrates as my role model, I aim to bridge philosophy and the people. Real philosophy means getting any passerby comfortable in the philosopher’s armchair with enough time and effort.

My first non-adjunct position as a philosophy professor was at a community college. Many colleagues assumed I would stay on the job market. However, teaching philosophy at a community college is an ideal position. I’ve taught philosophy at two large universities, public and private, and two community colleges. Community college students have the same need for and inclination towards philosophy. At a community college, philosophy professors foster critical thinking that will change lives and have a profound impact on society.

In Fall 2021, I became the Faculty Mentor of Socratic Society, the philosophy club at St. Louis Community College. There were only three to five students consistently attending club meetings. In club meetings, in the classroom, and in the hallways, I would often hear students gesturing at theories without naming them, without recognizing that their curiosities are classic philosophical questions with a long history of spilled ink. Realizing these students possess an innate desire for philosophy, I began directing them to resources to inform their thinking. If they enjoy reading, I send them to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. For those who don’t read much, I expose them to 1000 Word Philosophy. I direct those who prefer videos to Crash Course Philosophy. I enable my students to discover philosophy through a modality that suits their preferences. I also post philosophical content on my YouTube channel.

By Spring 2023, there were twelve to fourteen students regularly attending meetings. I created an Instagram page @Socratic_Society_at_STLCC to continue the philosophical thinking beyond the scope of class and the club. Wanting to engage even more students in philosophy, I suggested a philosophy conference to Socratic Society President, Eleanor Grissom, and Vice President, Givarra Azhar Abdullah. There are lots of logistics involved in executing a conference. I highly recommend Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall’s Planning a Successful Academic Conference.

The two students and I put out a call for student papers, and I reviewed them. We realized we could get more students involved in philosophical thinking by assigning commentators to the speaker’s papers, so we put out a call for student commentators and matched them with speakers. We had to organize a conference schedule based on the student speakers’ topics, plan breaks for networking and food, create and distribute flyers, prepare name tags on official STLCC lanyards, and reserve the room, chairs, and microphones. I also ordered and distributed polos inscribed with our club logo to ensure all students had a nice shirt for the big day.

Our philosophy conference attracted eighty-five people, seventy-one of whom were students. That’s right: seventy-one students volunteered their time to go to college on a Saturday to think together.

Eleanor Grissom reflects on the conference thus:

“The other students and I are grateful for the opportunity to present our own ideas to a thoughtful and engaged audience. We connected with fellow students on an intellectual level outside the classroom. We watched as our peers shared nontraditional ideas, respectfully disagreed with one another, and opened themselves up to new perspectives. This kind of student discourse is all too rare during this age of extreme political and social divisiveness, and its presence at our conference was due in no small part to Dr. Joakim’s thoughtful leadership.”

At the conference, thirteen students shared their views at the podium providing them a great public speaking opportunity. We had courageous conversations about important topics including the existence of God, the reality of free speech, the ethics of voluntary euthanasia, identity through change, and the value of aesthetics. One student argued that the typical objection to God’s existence, the divine hiddenness problem, actually supports a belief in the existence of God. Another student argued that the right to free speech is unequally distributed amongst Americans. Many controversial ideas were shared in an environment of respect and open-mindedness. The six-hour conference commenced with closing remarks, and students spilled into the hallways continuing the dialogue.

Most community college students have little time to examine their own worldview, and there exist so few venues for respectful and serious discourse based on critical thinking. This is cause for philosophers to focus more attention on community college students. Teaching philosophy at a community college should be viewed as an essential part of academia holding equal importance to teaching at four-year schools.

Here’s to more philosophy at the community college!

Sahar Joakim

Sahar Joakim received her B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA in 2014 and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from St. Louis University in 2020. Dr. Joakim has been a philosophy professor at St. Louis Community College since 2021 where she teaches philosophy, ethics, logic, and religion. Her research is in epistemology, specifically arguing that knowledge does not entail belief.