Unity in Diversity and Diversity in Unity: The Role and Legitimacy of European Universities (original) (raw)

Humanism and the Italian Universities

in Humanism and Creativity in the Italian Renaissance: Essays in Honor of Ronald G. Witt, ed. by Chrisopher S. Celenza and Kenneth Gouwens (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2006), pp. 323–42, 2006

On Humanism and the University I: The Discourse of Humanism

1984

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The becoming of University

The article is devoted to the becoming of the university in the Middle Ages (XII-XIII)-in the epoch of transition from the Mediterranean to the European civilization. From the philosophy of Hugo of St Victor to Bonaventure. The author seeks to show the connection of the doctrine of Augustine, Hugo and Bonaventure in the formation of this new educational institution, which is the University, thus asserting that the university is a sign of European civilization. The problems of the transmission of knowledge (Hugo and Bonaventure) and the transmission of holiness (Jacob de Voragine) are examined. The birth of translation as an intellectual activity.

The Popular Enlightenment: Knowledge, Society, and Institutions Before the German University Revolution

2002

This article is drawn from a larger project on the modern research university and its historical alternatives. The goal of the larger project is to understand the third and final phase of secularization, understood in a specific sense to mean the transfer of cultural reproduction, in particular education, from the purview of the church to the purview of the state. 1 The first phase was the seventeenth-century Scientific Revolution, during which natural philosophy arose to challenge the supremacy of Christian theology. The second was the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, when rationalist and empiricist methods and principles were extended to other domains of knowledge, from aesthetics to government to morality to economics. The third was the nineteenth-century movement, led by nation-states, to construct systems of public education, the culmination of a prolonged, tortuous effort to bring the benefits of Enlightenment to the people.

THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE IN THE NEW ERA. A COMMENT

The 1968 student crisis in France was the symptom of a rampant moral and intellectual disease; for the European universities were no longer adapted to meet the necessities of the societies that had invented them. In point of fact, the etymon of the term " university " is the mediaeval Latin word universitas, i.e. the erroneous translation of the Greek term encyclopaedia; and encyclopaedia means a general, advanced education capable of giving rise to the homo universalis. These homines universales were regarded as the natural leaders of traditional, hierarchically organized societies as were those before the French Enlightenment. Therefore, the very issue which the 1968 crisis raised was the one tackled as early as the 19 th As a matter of fact, the term " university " , which derives from the Latin universitas, is no more than an unsuccessful translation of the Greek term " encyclopaedia " ; for " encyclopaedia " has – but from a merely intellectual point of view-the same meaning as universitas. The latter expresses generally the idea of a " whole " , whereas the former expresses a " whole " but a specified one; in other words a complete education. The distortion of the term encyclopaedia's meaning during the Age of Enlightenment (and mainly through the French language) must not thereby allow its essential significance to fall into oblivion. century mainly in France and Russia: Does a modern European society need universities or highly specialized schools? The time now seems ripe to opt for the second solution.

Revisiting The Classical German Idea of the University

Polish Journal of Philosophy, 2008

The aim of the paper is to provide a philosophical and historical background to current discussions about the changing relationships between the university and the state through revisiting the classical "Humboldtian" model of the university as discussed in classical German philosophy. This historical detour is intended to highlight the cultural rootedness of the modern idea of the university, and its close links to the idea of the modern national state. The paper discusses the idea of the university as it emerges from the philosophy of Wilhelm von Humbold, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schleiermacher, as well as-in the 20 th century-Karl Jaspers and Jürgen Habermas. More detailed questions discussed include the historical pact between the modern university and the modern nation-state, the main principles of the Humboldtian university, the process of the nationalization of European universities, the national aspect of the German idea of culture (Bildung), and the tension between the pursuit of truth and public responsibilities of the modern university. In discussing current and future missions and roles of the institution of the university today, it can be useful to revisit its foundational (modern) German idea. In thinking about its future, it can be constructive to reflect on the evident current tensions between traditional modern expectations of the university and the new expectations intensified by the emergence of knowledge-based societies and marketdriven economies. From the perspective of the tensions between old and new tasks of the university, it is useful to look back at the turning point in its history.