"If you think in sports metaphors, we’re as good as the Yankees, but we’re not in the major TV market. So just as in sports, some of the major franchises have the ability to look across the league and cherry pick the best — that’s what we have to struggle against."
— Chris Maloney, head of the philosophy department
The Philosophy Department is generally recognized among the best philosophy programs in
the country in light of its strengths in epistemology, the philosophy of mind
and cognitive science, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of language,
moral and political philosophy, and the philosophy of science and mathematics.
Professor Julia Annas (center, on bench) working with some of her students. Photo by Christine Scheer.
The Pursuit of Excellence
James E. Rogers has given the philosophy department the
largest gift in its history. The department, ranked 8th in the country, will use the funds to hire a senior scholar, helping it to fight “brain drain,” and pushing it forward in its quest for
excellence.
You know Jim Rogers. He’s the one who has pledged a minimum of $100 million to the UA College of Law, named the James E. Rogers College of Law, which is the largest individual donation ever made to an American law school.
He is many things: a lawyer, a businessman, a chancellor… but why he should give to philosophy is not immediately apparent.
So why is Rogers extending his prodigious generosity to yet another area of study at the UA?
“Well, I’ll tell you,” Rogers said, “I’ve always really been interested in philosophy. I was never smart enough to understand it. I’m especially interested in ethics. That was my primary reason.”
Chris Maloney, head of the philosophy department, speculates that Rogers’ appreciation of excellence is also a big reason he gave, and an overriding passion in his life. Rogers does not disagree.
Rogers said that he knows that the UA philosophy department is in the top 10 and wants it to be number one: “I certainly alone can’t do that, but I think I, along with some others, including the great faculty and staff that you have now, can probably make it happen.” He added with a chuckle, “So this may be one of those things where I waited to see where the parade was going before I ran out in front of it.”
The Philanthropist
Rogers’ humor and self-deprecating manner is surprising in a person who has been so wildly successful in his life.
Rogers, a resident of Las Vegas, Nev., received a juris doctorate and a Doctor of Law from the University of Arizona, and a Master of Laws from the University of Southern California.
He ran a Las Vegas law practice for more than 20 years before focusing his energies into running Sunbelt Communications Company. Rogers owns 98 percent of the stock of Sunbelt, which owns and operates more than a dozen NBC affiliate television stations in five western states.
In May of 2004, Rogers was named interim chancellor for the University and Community College System of Nevada.
Rogers was named by Time magazine as one of the nation’s top 12 philanthropists. As active supporters of education, he and his wife, Beverly, have made substantial financial contributions to various colleges and universities.
When asked why public higher education has become his special calling, Rogers replied, “I think that you tend to get involved in the things that involve you or your family…You can’t be all things to all people…So Louis [Louis Wiener, Jr., his late partner] and I decided that education had provided everything we had…And you know, one thing leads to another. I returned to the Law School at the University of Arizona and only intended to buy them a new set of furniture for their lobby. That was the beginning of a whole series of gifts.”
Rogers said that his new job as chancellor has reinforced his belief that money given to public higher education is money well spent: “I’m here to testify that the public gets its money’s worth in the higher education system; what these people do with money and how they handle it is amazing to me — it really is!”
Maloney believes that public higher education is at a critical juncture. And he acknowledges visionaries like Jim Rogers for recognizing it and stepping up. “He sees how important it is to preserve public higher education in a way that keeps it accessible and also preserves its excellence,” Maloney said. ”It’s his belief that it’s the obligation of those in society that have been extraordinarily successful to invest their resources in higher education.”
UA President Peter Likins has come to know Jim Rogers as a friend and colleague, not merely as a benefactor. “Jim has a rare combination of intellect and passion, so he is guided by his generous heart to make contributions that are astutely conceived to be mutually reinforcing,” Likins said. “Philosophy is a superb department in its own right, and also a fine complement to the James E. Rogers College of Law. Jim’s gifts to Philosophy strengthen the foundation of Law, and at the same time contribute to the luster of one of our premier departments.”
The Gift
Rogers is giving the Department of Philosophy $92,000 a year (with an annual 5 percent increase) starting next year and continuing through his lifetime. The gift will fund the James E. Rogers Professorship in Philosophy. The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences will provide matching dollars to fund a senior scholar.
According to Maloney, the reason that Rogers’ gift is going to a faculty position is because Rogers understands how hard it is to keep the best philosophers in a competitive market, a problem commonly referred to as “brain drain.”
“If you think in sports metaphors, we’re as good as the Yankees, but we’re not in the major TV market,” Maloney said. “So just as in sports, some of the major franchises have the ability to look across the league and cherry pick the best — that’s what we have to struggle against.”
The Department
It’s not surprising that the department has to fight to keep its talent. As of 2004, they are ranked 8th in the United States — as good as Harvard — which is especially impressive considering all
colleges have a philosophy department. According to Maloney, “We are at the very top of a very broad, high mountain.”
In the last 15 years, six philosophy professors have been named Regents’ Professors, a designation only given to faculty scholars of exceptional ability who have achieved national and international distinction and reserved for a maximum of 3 percent of tenured or tenure-track faculty members.
Currently, the department boasts of three Regents’ Professors: Julia Annas, Keith Lehrer and John Pollock. All are top names in the field: Julia Annas specializes in almost every facet of ancient Greek philosophy, including ethics, psychology and epistemology, the science of knowledge. Keith Lehrer concentrates on epistemology, free will and rational consensus. And John Pollock is one of the dominant authorities in epistemology. His research also includes two relatively new areas: cognitive science and artificial intelligence.
The department just lost Regents’ Professor David Chalmers to the Australian National University. Chalmers, at only 37, is a preeminent philosopher in the field of consciousness studies, and his recruitment by another university is a real loss to the UA and a prime example of the challenge to keep top-tier professors.
The department houses many other incredible philosophers, who are quickly establishing names for themselves and doing some of the most creative work in the field. According to Professor Julia Annas, “The UA philosophy department is so good because we are all excited by philosophy and respect one another’s work.”
According to Maloney, “Our faculty is just amazing. And they are teaching a lot of students…The department thinks of itself as being absolutely committed to being a leader in research and the creation of knowledge. But we also see ourselves as having a duty to put the very best in front of the sons and daughters of the state of Arizona.”
The study of philosophy is sometimes perceived as arcane or impractical. But, in fact, it is concerned with ideas of timeless importance.
Ever since its appearance in ancient Greece, philosophy has sought answers to some of the most difficult, perplexing and fundamental questions continuously confronting people. All academic disciplines are built upon ideas of interest to philosophers — including the nature of the mind and the relationship between mental states and brain states; the distinction between true belief and knowledge; the rules of valid argument; and the basis for the distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad.
And the study of philosophy continues to evolve. UA philosophers are actively engaged in areas of great importance to society, including environmental, business and medical ethics. UA philosophers have advised local and federal government, major international corporations, global agencies as well as sovereign nations.
According to Annas, “The study of philosophy is always relevant and important, because the kinds of problems we study never go away, though they turn up in different forms. One example of this is that in a course I taught this spring to philosophy graduates and law students at the Rogers College of Law, we studied the different and often contentious ways that emotions enter into the application of law and study about law. We looked at philosophical accounts of the emotions which draw on psychology, sociology and psychoanalysis…In all these areas we have to ask the question, ‘What *is* an emotion?’ And it’s really hard!”
UA philosophers will continue to ask the hard questions and teach their students how to look for the answers. And the department will, with help from generous people such as Jim Rogers, continue in its pursuit of excellence.
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