The Idea of the University, the first book in a set of volumes from Michael A. Peters and Ronald Barnett, provides readings of central texts in the philosophical discourse of the organization and development of the modern research university. Since von Humboldt’s reforms at the University of Berlin in 1810, the early influential model of the university was intended to achieve a unity of teaching and research in providing students with an all-round humanist education. Emerging from German idealist and Romantic philosophy traditions, the Humboldtian university reflected the central importance of philosophy and the notion of academic freedom—the freedom to teach and to learn.
Over the next two hundred years, scholars developed this discourse, so establishing a canon of texts which are presented in this reader: Kant’s The Conflict of the Faculties, Newman’s The Idea of the University, Heidegger’s The Self-Assertion of the German Universities, Jaspers’ The Idea of the University and Ortega y Gasset’s Mission of the University. Also included here are contributions from other major figures such as Sedgwick, Whelwell, Stuart Mill, Arnold, and Leavis from the English tradition; and Hutchins, Clark, Kerr, and Bok, among others, from the American tradition. The collection concludes by presenting writings from Lyotard, Derrida, Bourdieu, MacIntyre, Said, and Readings who were all concerned at the many limitations being imposed by modernity and, in their different ways, held out for an idea of the university built around critical reason.
With a full-length opening essay by the editors and introductory notes on each of the readings and their authors, this volume constitutes a unique text in the literature on higher education and the university.
Arvustused
This two-volume work will provide a wonderful resource for all who have an interest in the idea of the university. Through their careful selection of both historical and contemporary texts, and their own insightful commentaries, Michael Peters and Ronald Barnett take readers on a fascinating, thought-provoking intellectual journey. From the canonical musings of Kant, Humboldt and Newman to recent scholarship on neoliberalism, globalization and digital developments in higher education, The Idea of the University offers much for teachers and students, managers and administrators, and politicians and policy-makers to reflect on as they play their parts in creating the university of the future. Peter Roberts, Professor of Education, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Michael A. Peters and Ronald Barnett have done the academic community a great service by collecting, in two handsome and well-structured volumes, a number of the most important contributions in thinking about the university, as well as providing illuminating and instructive directives for understanding the current relevance of the essays. These books should be required reading for anyone who cares about higher education in the present and the future. Sharon Rider, Professor of Philosophy, Uppsala University
Preface Michael A. Peters/Ronald Barnett: Introduction: The Very Idea
of the University Part One: The German (Bildung) Tradition Kant, Immanuel
(17241804): The Conflict of the Philosophy Faculty with the Theology
Faculty. From The Conflict of the Faculties (1789/1992) Schleiermacher,
Friedrich D. E. (17681834): A Closer Look at the University in General
Terms. From Occasional Thoughts on Universities in the German Sense, with an
Appendix Regarding a University Soon to Be Established (1808/1991)
Schelling, F. W. J. (17751854): The Scientific and Moral Functions of
Universities. From On University Studies (1802/1966) von Humboldt, Wilhelm
(17761835): On the Spirit and the Organisational Framework of Intellectual
Institutions in Berlin (1809/1970) Nietzsche, Friedrich (18441900):
Preface, Introduction and Lecture One. From On the Future of Our Educational
Institutions (1872/2009) Jaspers, Karl (18831969): Research, Education and
Instruction. From The Idea of the University (1923/1960) Heidegger, Martin
(18891976): The Self-Assertion of the German University: Address Delivered
on the Solemn Assumption of the Rectorate of the University Freiburg 1933/34:
Facts and Thoughts (1933/1985) Habermas, Jürgen (1929): The Idea of the
University: Learning Processes (1987) Gadamer, Hans-Georg (19002002): The
Idea of the University, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. From Hans-Georg Gadamer
on Education, Poetry, and History: Applied Hermeneutics (1992) Part Two:
The English and Scottish (Liberal) Tradition Sedgwick, Adam (17851873): A
Discourse on the Studies of the University. A Discourse (1833), Psalm CXVI.
17, 18,
19. From A Discourse on the Studies of the University (1833)
Whewell, William (17941866): Preparatory Remarks and of the Subjects of
University Teaching. From On the Principles of English University Education
(1837) Newman, John Henry (18011890): Knowledge Its Own End. From The Idea
of the University (1852) Stuart Mill, John (18061873): Inaugural Address
at the University of St. Andrews, February 1st, 1867 (1867) Arnold, Matthew
(18221888): Sweetness and Light. From Culture and Anarchy (1869) Moberly,
Walter (18811974): Aim and Basis. From The Crisis in the University (1949)
Leavis, F. R. I. (18951978): The Idea of the University. From Education and
the University: A Sketch for an English School; English Literature in Our
Time and the University (1967) Leavis, F. R. I. (18951978): Literature and
the University: The Wrong Question. From English Literature in Our Time and
the University (1969) Oakeshott, Michael (19011990): The Idea of the
University,
1950. From The Voice of Liberal Learning: Michael Oakeshott on
Education (1989) Oakeshott, Michael (19011990): The Definition of a
University,
1967. From The Journal of Educational Thought (1967) Niblett,
William Roy (19062005): The Central Problem. From Universities between Two
Worlds (1974) Universities between Two Worlds. From Universities between
Two Worlds (1974) Davie, George Elder (19122007): The Vernacular Basis of
Scottish Humanism. From The Democratic Intellect: Scotland and Her
Universities in the Nineteenth Century (1961) Minogue, Kenneth (19302013):
The Academic and the Practical Worlds. From The Concept of a University
(1973) Part Three: The American (Pragmatist) Tradition Veblen, Thorstein
(18571929): The Place of the University in Modern Life. From The Higher
Learning in America: A Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business
Men (1918) Flexner, J. Abraham (18661959): The Idea of a Modern
University. From Universities: American, English, German (1930) Hutchins,
Robert Maynard (18991977): The Dilemmas of the Higher Learning. From The
Higher Learning in America (1940) Kerr, Clark (19112003): The Idea of a
Multiversity. From The Uses of the University (1963) Clark, Burton R.
(19212009): The Problem of University Transformation. From Creating
Entrepreneurial Universities: Organizational Pathways of Transformation
(1998) Bok, Derek (1930): The Roots of Commercialization. From
Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education
(2003) Noble, David F. (19452010): Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation
of Higher Education (1998) Part Four: Other Contributions to the Discourse
Ortega y Gasset, José (18831955): The Fundamental Question. From Mission
of the University (1930) Ortega y Gasset, José (18831955): The Principle
of Economy in Education. From Mission of the University (1930) Lyotard,
Jean-Francois (19241998): Introduction; The Field: Knowledge in Computerized
Societies; The Problem: Legitimation; The Method: Language Games. From The
Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1984) MacIntyre, Alasdair
(1929): The Very Idea of a University: Aristotle, Newman and Us (2010)
Derrida, Jacques (19302004): The Principle of Reason: The University in the
Eyes of Its Pupils (1983) Bourdieu, Pierre (19302002): Preface to the
English Edition. From Homo Academicus (1984) Said, Edward W. (19352003):
On the University. From Edward Said and Critical Decolonization (2007)
Readings, Bill (19601994): The Idea of Excellence, From The University of
Ruins (1996) Readings, Bill (19601994): Dwelling in the Ruins. From The
University of Ruins (1996) Name Index Subject Index.
Michael A. Peters is Professor in the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research at Waikato University, NZ, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Sociology, BNU, China. He is Executive Editor of Educational Philosophy and Theory and founding editor of several other journals. His latest books are Wittgenstein and Education: Pedagogical Investigations (2017), with Jeff Stickney, and The Digital University: Manifesto and Dialogue (2017), with Petar Jandric.
Ronald Barnett, DLitt (London), PhD (London) is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, University College London Institute of Education. He has spent a lifetime in establishing the philosophy of higher education as a field, advancing original concepts and practical principles. His latest book is The Ecological University: A Feasible Utopia (2017).
