Kevin Slack’s poses with his wife Ruth in their engagement photo. Courtesy | Kevin Slack
Associate Professor of Politics Kevin Slack answers questions on his time at Hillsdale, the difficulties in writing a book, and his take on ChatGPT.
What did you study in undergrad?
I did my undergraduate degree at Indiana University South Bend. I was a history major and a political science minor. I didn’t go straight through though. I worked at factories in between semesters or dropped out a couple of times. Once I worked from January to August in metal and copper fittings plants before resuming classes in the fall.
Why did you decide to pursue political philosophy?
When I graduated, I had no idea what to do. I had a buddy who was working as a house mover, and he said, “Why don’t you come to join us?” I did that for a year and I decided I wanted to do something where I could use my mind more and work in sub-zero temperatures less. I remembered that I really liked a political theory class, and so I applied to a bunch of universities for graduate school. I got into the University of California Davis. I was in the Ph.D. program and I had a professor who said I wasn’t going to be able to get a good education in theory there because it was a quantitative program. He told me to apply to the University of Dallas, so I took a year’s leave of absence and went there, like so many other professors here at Hillsdale.
How did you end up in higher education?
The year I got my Ph.D. was the year of the housing market crash, and I had only applied to teach at one school. It was a junior college in California, and I didn’t think I was gonna get it. Because of that, I moved to South Bend, hoping to get on the fire department there. But then I got the one job I applied for, so I moved out to California.
What do you consider to be your area of expertise within political philosophy?
I think, properly speaking, when we talk about expertise, it’s a field where you know all the secondary literature. For example, my first book was on Benjamin Franklin. Even in the intro to that book, I had to be able to distinguish my own ideas and respond to all the other scholars in the field. I would say the other area that I’ve spent a lot of time on is the 1960s. I have a book that I’ve been working on for a long time about that, but I don’t have it out yet. So, overall I would say American Political Thought is, generally, my realm of expertise.
As the author of two books and with others in the works, can you talk about the book-writing process?
When I first started writing my latest book, I had started trying to write a popular book and realized I was just not capable of it. The way I write tends to be dense, and I’m sure it’s not very exciting because I include way too many facts. Every time I tried to write a general description of a period in American history, I was never satisfied. I wrote a book that was supposed to be just 90 pages and it ended up becoming 300 pages.
What are your favorite or least favorite things about Hillsdale students?
This is going to sound cringe, but I can’t think of anything I dislike about Hillsdale students. What I really love about Hillsdale students is that they’re smart, but, more importantly, they’re decent. And that’s not something you take for granted at most universities.
What do you think of ChatGPT and how has it affected your classroom?
I’m not terribly worried about it. If you were to tell ChatGPT to write the kinds of papers that are written here at Hillsdale, I’m not sure that it would be able to write about the details of a political philosophy text in such a way as to be thoughtful and correct.
Why is politics important and why should we study it?
As Aristotle says, man is the political animal. Or as James Madison says, what is government but the greatest study of human nature? So, on the one hand, politics is the most important thing. I think that’s because politics always touches on the most important questions, the things that are more important than life itself. For example, the state can order you to go fight and die to defend a certain way of life. On the other hand, politics is the least important thing. It doesn’t answer questions about the best way of life. There are questions in science and philosophy that deal with immutable truths. I think the great defense of politics is that it is necessary to access those deeper truths.
How would you describe your teaching style in the classroom?
I’ve never been what I would call a natural teacher. Some of that is probably my background. It’s changed from when I first started teaching and I thought that I had to know everything. I used to teach history and I would prepare even if I had taught the class 10 or 15 times. But class prep in itself is no punishment. It’s moved by a genuine curiosity because I love this subject material. We at Hillsdale are really blessed to be able to do what we do and I never want to take that for granted. I always live in the realization that someday I may be working at Walmart or tiling floors. While I don’t think that’s going to happen, I just don’t want to take the job for granted. It’s a real blessing.
