In his brief remarks welcoming University of Toronto students to the first Canadian instalment of the after-dark philosophy series “Night Owls,” Randy Boyagoda commended the audience for coming to an event that wouldn’t juice their résumés or help them score a job.
asserted
them → welcome → job
“This is not going to get you into law school,” Prof. Boyagoda, the new director of U of T’s Jackman Humanities Institute, said with a wink.
asserted
Boyagoda → go → wink
“No one’s going to write you a rec. letter for being here.
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one → go → letter
I will sign no co-curricular transcripts because you are here.
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you → sign → transcripts
You are here because you have made the decision to live as if ideas matter.”
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ideas → make → decision
For the nearly three hours that followed last Thursday night, about 100 rapt students sat – or stood if they had trickled in late to the packed, fluorescent-lit lecture room – as celebrity philosopher Agnes Callard of the University of Chicago and Joe Heath, a political and economic philosopher at U of T, debated the ethics of capitalism.
asserted
Callard → follow → capitalism
The Night Owls event gave students a chance to hear ideas bandied about for their own sake, something that isn’t exactly in vogue in Canada’s job-obsessed postsecondary education sector, where funding is increasingly directed to STEM, trades and professional fields.
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funding → give → fields
The freewheeling discussion roamed from a comparison of co-operative and competitive capitalism, to talk of whether modern dentistry could be seen as a triumph of pricing and markets, to the differences between true socialism and what Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders advocates for.
uncertain
Sanders → roam → what
(“That’s just Canada,” Prof. Heath said to laughs.)
asserted
Heath → ’ → laughs
“I thought it was great,” Tiara Maleki Yazdi, a first-year student who plans to major in philosophy and English, said over pizza and cans of Bubly sparkling water at the break.
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who → think → break
She and her friends still weren’t sure how some of the philosophical concepts Prof. Callard and Prof. Heath tossed around would apply in real life, but said “it was a real privilege to listen to it and get exposed to a new perspective.”
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it → toss → perspective
The Ontario government is spending $1.7-billion over four years to fund 70,000 new seats at colleges and universities for programs in STEM, health care, teaching and skilled trades.
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government → spend → STEM
Forty-thousand of those spaces were allocated only after schools consulted local businesses to make certain their program expansions met labour-market demands, the provincial government announced Sept. 10.
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government → allocate → demands
The following day, Alberta unveiled the next phase of its expanded enrolment plan, adding 8,000 seats at colleges and universities by 2028-29 in nursing, teaching, paramedicine, engineering, technology and trades.
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Alberta → unveil → nursing
The humanities haven’t benefited from the same government largesse or student demand.
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humanities → benefit → largesse
Liberal arts programs are mostly contracting, although the specifics differ by school and discipline.
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specifics → contract → school
About 70,000 fewer students were enrolled in humanities programs at universities and colleges across Canada in 2023-24 compared with a decade earlier, according to the most recent data from Statistics Canada.
uncertain
students → enrol → Canada
And that was before Ottawa’s curbing of international student visas, which deprived postsecondary institutions of a major funding source.
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which → deprive → source
The policy change led some schools to cut or freeze their offerings, notably in the humanities.
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change → lead → humanities
Prof. Boyagoda is a novelist, critic and longtime English professor, who in July became director of the Jackman Humanities Institute, which hosted the Night Owls event.
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which → become → event
He said he is sympathetic to students who want to major in the STEM or professional fields that seem likeliest to land them a job.
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that → say → job
“I acknowledge fully the importance of providing students with the practical skills needed to succeed in the professions,” he said.
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he → acknowledge → professions
“But at the same time, we shouldn’t mistake universities for technical institutes − for trade schools with better architecture.”
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we → mistake → architecture
Many undergraduate students pursuing professional degrees are eager to study subjects such as history, art, literature, and – especially – philosophy as second majors, minors or electives at a time when artificial intelligence makes the human mind feel more valuable, he added.
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he → pursue → time
The number of registrations in undergraduate philosophy courses has held steady or ticked up slightly since 2018-19 at U of T’s three campuses, the school’s data show.
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data → hold → campuses
“Philosophy is teaching you how to actually think,” said Julia Nefsky, chair of the philosophy department at U of T Scarborough.
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Nefsky → teach → Scarborough
“So it’s like a power combo with a technical field.”
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it → ’ → field
Prof. Nefsky and her colleagues Daniel Silver, a professor of sociology at U of T Scarborough, and Gurpreet Rattan, chair of philosophy at U of T Mississauga, proposed the Night Owls event to Prof. Boyagoda.
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Nefsky → propose → Boyagoda
They were inspired by the late-night philosophy rap sessions of the same name that Prof. Callard has emceed at the University of Chicago for nearly a decade.
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Callard → inspire → decade
Topics have ranged from “How do we judge the dead?” and “The ethics of artificial intelligence,” to “Is love worth the pain?” and the “Philosophy of divorce.”
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love → range → divorce
Prof. Callard hosted the latter event with her ex-husband, fellow University of Chicago philosopher Ben Callard.
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Callard → host → Chicago
The former couple later philosophized to The New Yorker about living together with Agnes’s new husband.
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couple → philosophize → husband
The University of Chicago, historically a giant of humanities education, stunned postsecondary observers when its Arts and Humanities Division decided to pause admissions to most PhD programs for the 2026-27 academic year to help the indebted school get back on its financial feet.
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school → stun → feet
Only the philosophy department and one program in music escaped the freeze.
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department → escape → freeze
After the Toronto Night Owls event wrapped up around 10:45 p.m., Prof. Callard said in an interview that enrolment in philosophy courses at the University of Chicago has bucked the downward trend of the humanities overall, just like at U of T.
Philosophy endures as a popular second choice for students majoring in hard-edged subjects such as economics, physics and math, she added.
asserted
she → wrap → economics
“A lot of the humanities might seem kind of inaccessible or you’re not really sure what their concerns are,” she said.
uncertain
she → seem → humanities
“I think philosophy wears its heart on its sleeve.”
asserted
philosophy → think → sleeve
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