Years ago in the land of togas and marble columns, Socrates made the claim in "The Apology" that, "The unexamined life is not worth living." As a Political Philosophy, Policy & Law major, I believe I am legally obligated to make some sort of vaguely philosophical quote in pretty much everything I write, lest I be ostracized from civilized society. I also have to use words like "lest." It is my cross to bear. Anyway, as students who strive to acquire knowledge at every turn, we have a clear picture as to what Socrates is referring. We live in a world of textbooks and papers in which our sole duty is to "examine" and learn to better our lives or to satisfy course requirements. As enlightened and reasonable students of Mr. Jefferson's University - and I use these terms loosely - we all pretty much have some cursory idea of our political leanings. Left, right, centrist, anarchist: We all know where we stand on the political spectrum and most of us have at least mulled over opinions on the basic issues of our day. Perhaps this is mitigated somewhat by the University's location in the south, but college campuses tend to be more liberal. For example, CNN exit polls for the 2008 presidential election indicated that at least 68 percent of college students voted for Barack Obama. Basically, it is hard to dispute the fact that liberalism tends to be the ideology du jour when it comes to politics on campuses. Given this fact, however, there seems to be a dearth of student-initiated examination of the core principles of liberalism.
This past year, groups of conservative-leaning students started a student-initiated course examining American conservatism. Intellectual groups such as the Burke Society, the University Libertarians, Students for Objectivism and the Network of Enlightened Women wanted to examine the fundamental principles of conservatism or other right-leaning ideologies. Apart from a few single-issue groups, there does not seem to be an equivalent initiative from more liberal students to examine the core tenets of their ideology. Where is the John Stuart Mill Society or other groups whose main mission is to sit down and discuss not just current issues, but also the philosophical foundations of liberalism?
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