Moral Philosophy in a Social Scientific Age: A Proposal to Reintegrate the Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract

American higher education has been in almost perpetual crisis for several generations, with students experiencing fragmentation and loss of coherence across the curriculum. Most liberal arts colleges in the 19th century had a required senior course in “moral philosophy” to integrate the curriculum and prepare students for future leadership, but over a century ago the new science and social science disciplines ended these courses. Students now are trained in disciplinary silos, with little opportunity to integrate their studies after freshmen year general education courses. This paper proposes to reintegrate a student's undergraduate experience by having a required interdisciplinary senior capstone course, modeled on the old moral philosophy course but without its elitist and authoritarian methods. This new course would incorporate university values and the disciplines within it, in small interdisciplinary seminars designed around contemporary problems, which would provide students an opportunity to develop a moral framework for future service.