The Thinking University

Description

This book reinvigorates the philosophical treatment of the nature, purpose, and meaning of thought in today’s universities. The wider discussion about higher education has moved from a philosophical discourse to a discourse on social welfare and service, economics, and political agendas. This book reconnects philosophy with the central academic concepts of thought, reason, and critique and their associated academic practices of thinking and reasoning. Thought in this context should not be considered as a merely mental or cognitive construction, still less a cloistered college, but a fully developed individual and social engagement of critical reflection and discussion with the current pressing disciplinary, political, and philosophical issues. The editors hold that the element of thought, and the ability to think in a deep and groundbreaking way is, still, the essence of the university. But what does it mean to think in the university today? And in what ways is thought related not only to the epistemological and ontological issues of philosophical debate, but also to the social and political dimensions of our globalised age? In many countries, the state is imposing limitations on universities, dismissing or threatening academics who speak out critically. With this volume, the editors ask questions such as: What is the value of thought? What is the university’s proper relationship to thought? To give the notion of thought a thorough philosophical treatment, the book is divided into in three parts. The focus moves from an epistemological perspective in Part I, to a focus on existence and values in higher education in Part II, and then to a societal-oriented focus on the university in Part III. All three parts, in their own ways, debate the notion of thought in higher education and the university as a thinking form of being. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Considering the Thinking University (Ronald Barnett, Søren S. E. Bengtsen)....Pages 1-12 Front Matter ....Pages 13-13 Truth, Democracy and the Mission of the University (Sharon Rider)....Pages 15-29 Universities as Societal Drivers: Entrepreneurial Interventions for a Better Future (Wesley Shumar, Sarah Robinson)....Pages 31-45 Dissident Thought: A Decolonising Framework for Revolt in the University (Sonja Arndt, Carl Mika)....Pages 47-60 Towards an African University of Critique (Yusef Waghid, Nuraan Davids)....Pages 61-73 Front Matter ....Pages 75-75 Research Education and Care: The Care-Full PhD (Robyn Barnacle)....Pages 77-86 Citizenship and the Thinking University: Toward the Citizen Scholar (James Arvanitakis, David J. Hornsby)....Pages 87-101 Bildung, Emotion and Thought (Thomas Karlsohn)....Pages 103-118 Technicising Thought: English and the Internationalisation of the University (SunInn Yun, Paul Standish)....Pages 119-134 Front Matter ....Pages 135-135 A Complexity Thinking Take on Thinking in the University (David Beckett, Paul Hager)....Pages 137-153 When Thought Gets Left Alone: Thinking, Recognition and Social Justice (Jan McArthur)....Pages 155-166 The Worldhood University: Design Signatures & Guild Thinking (Rikke Toft Nørgård, Søren S. E. Bengtsen)....Pages 167-183 The Thinking University: Two Versions, Rival and Complementary (Ronald Barnett)....Pages 185-198 Back Matter ....Pages 199-200