I don’t know about my students or my colleagues, but it feels like the new semester hit me like a Mack truck.  I haven’t been able to internalize my schedule, am behind in putting up the PowerPoint slides on my institution’s course management system, and actually walk on to campus most days not really knowing what I will be talking about that day.  I hope I get over this quickly!

Tonight in the History of Psychology class we discussed the philosophy of science.  In discussing Thomas Kuhn and Carl Popper’s contributions to the field, I had a couple of quotes from Einstein and Sagan…but had forgotten about the Asimov quote above.  A few of my students were truly shocked to learn that it isn’t popular to push against the envelope of a paradigm.  I was delighted that this lecture merged into a documentary about Socrates; the poster child for pushing against the envelope of a paradigm!

Yesterday was the first day of classes at my University.  While we waited for the tech from IT to show up to figure out why the computer wouldn’t turn on (it was unplugged; I was embarrassed) I waxed on (and on) about why taking a course in the history of Psychology was worthwhile.  I might have gotten a little misty-eyed when I spoke about the importance of the ideas of dead white guys (and a few gals and even fewer people of color).  Why institutions of higher learning want to educate the whole person for his or her whole life.  Otherwise, I remarked, “you can just go to a technical school” and avoid all this general education/interdisciplinary/irrelevant-to-the-major nonsense we subject you to.

I also might have gone a bit overboard on why understanding the history of their field of study is essential.  I once remarked, to a colleague who asked why I thought  discussing the history of Psychology was important in an Introductory class, that “it is important for students to know that the questions that guide our research didn’t just fly out of our asses” (I really did say that, exactly as quoted).

People, all kinds of people, have been thinking about central questions related to the human condition, probably since people began thinking.  Institutes of higher learning HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY to make thinking and talking about these topics central to their mission.  It is all about the ideas, people, all about the ideas!