Philosophers on the University: Reconsidering Higher Education

ISBN-13: 9783030310639 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 213 str.

Ronald Barnett; Amanda Fulford

Spis treści

1. Introductory essay: Considering higher education: thinking it through; Ronald Barnett and Amanda Fulford.- Part I: Questioning the University.- 2. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): The will to power and the university; Søren ø. E. Bengtsen.- 3. Theodor Adorno (1903-1969): Restless, fractured and uncomfortable thought; Jan McArthur.- 4. Ernest Gellner (1925-1995): Nought for the university’s comfort? Ronald Barnett.- 5. Roy Bhaskar (1944-2014): The idea of a university; David Scott.- Part II:  Culture and the University.- 6. F. R. Leavis (1895-1978): Thought, words and creativity and the university; Steven Cranfield.- 7. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975): Embodying a promise in the university; Jon Nixon.- 8. José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955): The university’s social mission - to enrich individual potential; John Wyatt.- 9. Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-): Philosophy and the university; John Haldane.- Part III:  Letting Learn.- 10. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976): Higher education as thinking; Paul Gibbs.- 11. Karl Jaspers (1883-1969): Truth, academic freedom and student autonomy; Stephen Burwood.- 12. Stanley Cavell (1926-2018): Higher education and the development of voice; Amanda Fulford.- Part IV:  Higher Education and Democracy.- 13. John Dewey (1859-1952): Democratic hope through higher education; Naoko Saito.- 14. Jacques Rancière (1940-): Higher education as a place for radical equality; Joris Vlieghe.- 15. Jürgen Habermas (1929-): The importance of higher education for democracy; Ted Fleming.- Index. 

Blurb

This book shows the significance of the thinking of philosophers (and other key thinkers) in understanding the university and higher education. Through those explorations, it widens and substantially adds to the emerging philosophy of higher education. It builds on the historical literature on the idea of the university, and provides higher education scholars with highly accessible introductions to the thinking of key philosophers and thinkers, alerting them to a set of literature that otherwise might not be encountered.
Until very recently, most of the debate on higher education – both in the public domain and in the scholarly literature – has been conducted with little regard to the philosophical literature.  This is odd for two reasons.  Firstly, much of the historical literature on the idea of the university – over the past two hundred years – has been written by philosophers and their thinking has largely gone unmined.  Second, and perhaps even more importantly, many of the issues in the higher education debate are either philosophical in their nature, or require reflective thinking, and there lies to hand huge resources in the philosophical literature that can help in working through those issues.  Issues such as what is to count as knowledge (in the university), wisdom, voice, democracy, culture, what it is to ‘be’ a student or academic, academic freedom, communication, work and disciplinarity cry out for the kind of insights that the philosophical literature – very broadly understood – can offer.  This book attempts precisely to do this, to show how the work of key thinkers can help in deepening the higher education debate.

Each chapter focuses on an individual thinker, giving both an insight into the thinker in question and accessibly drawing out something of their thinking and showing its significance in understanding the university and higher education.  The editors provide a full-length introduction that marks out this large territory and prepares the ground for the reader.

At a time of excessive student demand, and unprecedented debate as to what and whose public good higher education serves, comes an anthology, which learns from the past to understand, that which is yet to come. Philosophers on the University offers sophisticated and unafraid analyses of what constitutes a university, its truth, its responsibility, and its accountability. A book of deep thoughts and insights, surpassed only by the immense purpose which higher education ought to fulfill.
Prof Nuraan Davids, Stellenbosch University, South Africa