Philosophy as Literature: A Step beyond Convention

Abstract

back to the basics movement challenges us who teach students in their latter years of high school-if part of our task is to shape a curriculum in continuity with the fundamental skills they have already acquired. Yet we must beware of using the justification that an approach's day has gone as the primary excuse for advocating our own current enthusiasm. I hope that curriculum development is a rational process built upon experience and common sense and not a succession of trendy movements that leave in their wake puzzled students, burnt-out teachers, and storerooms filled with expensive debris. We need to make an honest appraisal of the benefits and shortcomings of almost any approach. The classic survey may be outdated, but the historical approach to literature remains a valid method of curriculum integration. At its best, I have seen this approach introduce students with enthusiasm to the history of ideas, to what Mortimer Adler called the great conversation. The genre approach also, though running the risk of formalism, has been effective at producing critical readers attuned to the intimate relationship between their understanding and appreciation and the structure of a given work. The use of thematic motifs such as the American