The Ideal of the University by Robert Wolff

The Ideal of the University by Robert Wolff

The Ideal of the University is a lucid, comprehensive analysis of the rationale, principles, and presuppositions that make contemporary universities what they are. The book begins with four sharp, carefully delineated models of a university. After analyzing such controversial issues as the role of grading in the university and the myth of value neutrality. Wolff turns to the crucial question of how the university should be governed. He argues for a radical reconstruction based on a social contract that would place ultimate authority in the hands of the faculty and students. The book concludes with a series of practical proposals for Utopian reform, including such provocative recommendations as a variable-length, ungraded undergraduate program and elimination of the Ph.D. degree. In his introduction to this new edition, Wolff expands upon his original speculations to argue in substantive detail for the liberating potential of the liberal arts. Drawing upon Freud and Marcuse, Wolff proposes that literature, art, and philosophy embody a promise of gratification that engenders a negative critique of the social and cultural status quo. The rationale for the liberal arts university is society's need for a reservoir of critical thinking that is the motor of social, economic, and political progress. Elegantly written and passionately argued; The Ideal of the University is essential reading for educators and sociologists.

Robert Paul Wolff is an emeritus professor of political philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States. About Philosophy (1998), The Ideal of the University (1992), The Autonomy of Reason (1990), Kant's Theory of Mental Activity (1990), and Moneybags Gotta Be So Fortunate (1988) are only a few of his publications.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781560006039
ISBN 10	156000603X
Title	The Ideal of the University
Author	Robert Wolff
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Taylor & Francis Inc
Year published	1992-09-30
Number of pages	200
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.