An IU researcher has won a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to study defunding and decline of college philosophy programs.
Anthony Beavers, an adjunct faculty member in cognitive science, plans to launch the nonprofit Independent Philosophy Institute. It will increase access to philosophy classes.
This is not one of the MacArthur Foundation’s well known “genius grants,” which are awarded to individuals rather than group projects like Beavers’s. He is the principal investigator for the study, which includes faculty at Harvard, Washington and other universities.
Philosophy programs have been closed and reduced nationwide in the past decade, including BA programs at Ball State and IU Indianapolis this year.
“There's a concern on some of our parts that if you take away disciplines like philosophy, you're going to see a decrease in innovation in other fields as well over time,” Beavers said.
Beavers said the foundation didn’t take much convincing. The only delay was finding an institution to process the grant, eventually landing on Indiana University.
“Three times during that year they wrote us, saying, ‘Where are you with this? We'd like to give you the money. We think this is important to do.’ And in fact, that's an unusual grant situation to start with,” Beavers said.
Researchers plan to release their report next fall.
