Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Florence








More from Berry on the University

The thing being made in a university is humanity. given the current influence of universities, this is merely inevitable. But what universities, at least the public-supported ones, are mandated to make or to help to make is human beings in the fullest sense of those words — not just trained workers or knowledgeable citizens but responsible heirs and members of human culture. If the proper work of the university is only to equip people to fulfill private ambitions, then how do we justify public support? If it is only to prepare citizens to fulfill public responsibilities, then how do we justify the teaching of arts and sciences? The common denominator has to be larger than either career preparation or preparation for citizenship. Underlying the idea of a university — the bringing together, the combining into one, of all the disciplines — is the idea that good work and good citizenship are the inevitable by-products of the making of a good — that is, a fully developed — human being. This, as I understand it, is the definition of the name university.

From “The Loss of the University,” in Home Economics.

hat tip to Bill

More on Berry

Discussion of Berry on the university here. Hat tip to Bill.

Wendell Berry pulls papers

Wendell Berry has pulled his papers from the University of Kentucky in protest of the university's growing emphasis on research and their cozy relationship with the coal industry. Read about it here.
Thanks to Front Porch Republic.