RIP: Brown University Bioethics
Brown University was never really known as a place to learn bioethics as a profession.But what Brown was known for in bioethics was its great research and writing, and a kind of leadership in bioethics that allowed it to create the very first "bioethics major" for those who are not yet ready to learn a profession - undergraduates. It was a brilliant concept - teach undergraduates about medicine, philosophy, the social sciences, and so many other things through the filter of ethical issues in biomedical science. And it worked. It was started by Dan Brock, a philosopher and bioethics pioneer who retired from Brown several years ago, taking positions first at NIH, then Harvard.
Brown couldn't get its act together to hire Brock's replacement. It had, instead, a very public implosion in bioethics, in fact, as the Brown philosophy department displayed the nearsightedness that has become typical of philosophy departments, declining to hire any among a pool of strong applicants for Brock's job because none of them were "good enough philosophers." It was the sort of decision that has characterized the past decade in philosophy, a ten year period that has seen the more-or-less total demise of the public role of academic philosophy.
So bioethics at Brown - easily one of the school's best-known areas of accomplishment - essentially died, and with it that incredible bioethics major, which Brown has announced will now die. The bioethics major wasn't just a precedent that a number of other schools would eventually follow, although it did establish that an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in bioethics might make educational sense. What it really represented was the pinnacle of Brown's greatness as an undergraduate institution - back when Brown was a top-10 school in the late 80s. It was a fabulous example of how the Brown "design your own major" program both attracted good students with good motivations and also taught them to combine science and humanities.
So, just like that, Brown disappears from bioethics. R.I.P.
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Is it being suggested that being a "good enough philosopher" is _not_ an acceptable criterion for hiring into a philosphy department?
In light of what standards, then, is the pool of applicants for the position at Brown judged to be "strong?"
The public role of academic philosophy is enhanced when "good enough philosophy" is brought to bear on public issues. If the public issues are truly important, they deserve no less than "good enough."
- by Bob Koepp on Mar 21, 2005 at 1:35 PM | link
no the point is that the emerging standard for a bioethicist who is a "good enough philosopher" is a preposterous one. it biases toward skills that would make the resulting philosopher useless in terms of the broad set of goals for bioethics. more to the point, the pool of candidates for the job was comprised as best i can tell of exceptionally well-published, oft cited leaders in bioethics.
show me five top-notch, bioethics-oriented "good enough philosophers" who are in fact both good at analysis of biomedical science and acceptable to philosophy departments, and i will eat my shoe.
- by glenn on Mar 22, 2005 at 2:09 AM | link
1) James Childress
2) Tom Beauchamp
3) Baruch Brody
4) H. Tristram Engelhardt
5) Al Jonsen
More on request. But this incomplete list amply demonstrates that the dichotomy between "good enough philosopher" and "biases toward skills that makes the resulting philosopher useless" is false.
- by Pass the Ketchup on Mar 22, 2005 at 7:46 AM | link
I do not think that Glenn's point was that there is such a dichotomy. I think his point, amply demonstrated by the ages of everyone on your list, was that the generation of philosopher bioethics scholars who work in philosophy *departments* is a generation prior to this one - there are no more real philosophy programs training people in bioethics per se because the skills - beyond philosophical skills - exceed those that philosophy departments can inculcate. I think that Glenn is right, and in my own department I can attest that there is also a clear distaste for bioethics - which is also true at Brown and always has been. That is the real reason it is impossible for important new hires in bioethics to happen in philosophy departments. We've all moved to the medical school.
- by james nelson on Mar 22, 2005 at 11:17 AM | link