by James Goodman
Two years ago, Dr. David K. Chan was hired as the department chair for philosophy at UAB. He says he came here to strengthen the program and to begin developing new courses for the future.
“What I was hired to do is to bring the philosophy program to the next level. There’s a new generation coming, and I think they really will put UAB on the map as a top philosophy program,” Chan said.
Chan grew up in the city-state of Singapore. In his youth, Singapore was just developing and the humanities were brushed aside. He said a lot of pressure was put on students to do well in school so that they may become doctors or engineers.
“The main value of philosophy is the breadth. What we do applies to almost everything. The life of the mind is something that enriches you.”
Dr. David K. Chan
“It tended to be that you wouldn’t take literature and history seriously and that those were for people who couldn’t do sciences or the maths,” Chan said.
Chan was one of those science students. He had no experience in philosophy and originally planned to attend the University of Melbourne in Australia to study economics and then become a doctor. During his first year at Melbourne, he took a philosophy course at the recommendation of his high school principal.
Chan said his story wasn’t unlike any other.
“It’s the same story you get from any professor in philosophy. They take their first philosophy class and then realize, ‘I gotta switch from what I thought I was going to do,’” Chan said.
Taking advantage of Melbourne’s first-rate philosophy program, Chan changed his major and went on to graduate school to study it further despite the value of philosophy being so often questioned.
“The main value of philosophy is the breadth. What we do applies to almost everything,” Chan said. “The life of the mind is something that enriches you.”
Philosophy has brought Chan all around the world. Throughout his life, he’s lived on three continents and in three very different parts of the United States. He lived in California while attending Stanford for his Ph.D., in Wisconsin to teach, and is now here in Birmingham.
“Twenty years in Wisconsin — that’s enough shoveling and traveling through snow for a lifetime,” Chan said. He added he is glad to be down south where the weather is much warmer.
Chan said his concern wasn’t about money, and said that if it were he would be a doctor today as he had originally planned. He said philosophy opened his eyes to a life that he said he had no knowledge of in Singapore — the life of the mind.
“You don’t make a lot of money being a professor in the humanities, but I’ve realized there are more important things than just the rat race of trying to get rich,” Chan said.
