An interesting thought experiment raised early on in Michael Dummett's new The Nature and Future of Philosophy (Columbia University Press, 2010):
It is by no means obvious that universities...should support philosophy but for historical precedent. If universities had been an invention of the second half of the twentieth century, would anyone have thought to include philosophy among the subjects that they taught and studied? It seems very doubtful. But the history of Western universities goes back 900 years--that of Islamic universities even further--and philosophy has always been one of the subjects taught and studied in them. It just does not occur to anyone not to include a philosophy department among those composing a university.
The last sentence must, of course, have an ironic ring in light of the fiasco at Middlesex "University" [sic]. Thoughts on Professor Dummett's hypothetical: if universities arose after WWII, would philosophy have been a standard subject?
