The following feature article appeared in the campus publication Mosaic in September, 2001.

Using philosophy to address social issues

Adorned with stickers, postcards, and political cartoons that confront questions of feminism, class, race, and politics, the door of Maurice Wade’s office alludes to the complexity of the individual within. A postcard depicts Karl Marx dressed as James Dean accompanied by the caption “Rebel with a Cause.” An illustration of an armchair questioning the purpose of its arms and legs is aptly titled “Chair of the Philosophy Department.” Despite his claim that philosophy is “one of the disciplines that is furthest removed from practical kinds of questions,” Wade bridges the abstract world of the philosopher with that of the sociologist, as he grapples with social issues in and out of the classroom.   

Wade’s socially conscious passion for philosophy perhaps can be traced back to his undergraduate studies at Yale University. There, he studied psychology before being drawn to philosophy by his interest in a school of psychology developed after World War II that combined existentialism and psychology. “It came out of the reflections of European psychologists on the various traumas of WWII, which provoked the question of how do you maintain psychological health in the context of a world where this kind of evil can happen. In order to continue the study of existentialism and questions of that sort, I had to move over into philosophy,” Wade explains.

Wade’s deep interest in philosophy and its value in addressing social issues is a current that runs through not only his role as chair of the philosophy department, but also his role as director of the College’s public policy program.

A unique look at public policy
Wade, who has taught in the public policy program since he came to the College, begins his second three-year term as director of the program this fall. He describes the public policy program as “an interdisciplinary look at government that brings to bear philosophy, political science, economics, anthropology, sociology, and any perspective that can help us to understand public policy.”

John Alcorn, associate director of Italian programs and member of the faculty in public policy studies, has a first-hand appreciation of Wade’s ability to bring philosophical thought processes to students in the program as they explore a range of policy issues.

“What I like is that he’s a first-rate philosopher who takes science and the social sciences seriously,” Alcorn says. “That’s the right combination for heading up a public policy program so the students get a nicely integrated and balanced approach.”

Changes behind, changes ahead
Wade, who came to Trinity in the fall of 1983 after teaching at North Carolina State University, says there have been major changes at Trinity on a number of fronts.

“On the score of diversity, things have changed a great deal,” he says, citing a trend of increased minority enrollment since his arrival. “If you compare Trinity 18 years ago to Trinity today, quite a bit has changed. There has been quite a bit of improvement.” He cites the College’s office of multicultural affairs as a valuable resource for addressing issues of diversity on campus.

“Bringing someone like [Dean of Multicultural Affairs] Karla Spurlock-Evans onto campus is going to help us deal with diversity and multiculturalism in creative and useful sorts of ways, so that we aren’t just doing something politically correct because it’s politically correct. We’re doing something that is important to the basic educational mission of the College,” Wade says. He feels that the increasingly broad curriculum and the kinds of courses being offered further reflect the College’s commitment to diversity.

Wade also cites an increase in faculty collaboration, particularly interdepartmental collaboration, as another valuable step to further enriching the academic climate of the Trinity community.  This collaborative spirit resonates with Wade’s colleague Drew Hyland, Charles A. Dana professor of philosophy.

“He is one of the best philosophical conversationalists I know,” Hyland says of Wade. “I never try to publish an article without making sure that Maurice hears it first and I get a chance to benefit from his responses. All of us in the department benefit from his ability to listen carefully to our ideas and respond in the most constructively critical way.”

Philosophy in action
Wade asserts that philosophy promotes ways of thinking that are invaluable to students, and applicable to any profession they may pursue. He adds that philosophy majors at Trinity take career paths as diverse as law, business, and medicine.

“One of the things that an education in philosophy gives students is the ability to make judgments, hold beliefs, and pursue knowledge even while understanding that the world is largely contingent,” Wade explains. “There are no guarantees when it comes to belief, knowledge, and action, but, nonetheless, we have to try to believe, know, and act deliberately and reflectively. Philosophy can be really helpful in enabling one to live as a rational, reflective person in an inevitable world of uncertainty and ambiguity.”

Wade charges students to utilize the skills they acquire at Trinity to solve the “increasingly complex” challenges with which they will be faced and predicts that issues of collective racial and ethnic identity and class differences will be salient for some time to come.

“It’s increasingly a much more complicated world for individuals and groups than ever before. I think because certainty is hard to come by—because complete clarity is hard to come by—lots of people give up on dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty by turning to something utterly dogmatic that gives them the answer to everything,” Wade argues.

“When places like Trinity succeed at doing what we’re doing, we will equip people to deal with uncertainty, ambiguity, and contingency without giving up and going in a completely dogmatic direction.”

–Michael Bradley