The Aims of Higher Education

Problems of Morality and Justice

Harry Brighouse, Michael McPherson, Harry Brighouse, Michael McPherson

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9780226259482
  9780226259345
• eBook ISBN:
  9780226259512
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In this book, philosopher Harry Brighouse and Spencer Foundation president Michael McPherson bring together leading philosophers to think about some of the most fundamental questions that higher education faces. Looking beyond the din of arguments over how universities should be financed, how they should be run, and what their contributions to the economy are, the contributors to this volume set their sights on higher issues: ones of moral and political value. The result is an accessible clarification of the crucial concepts and goals we so often skip over—even as they underlie our educational policies and practices.
           
The contributors tackle the biggest questions in higher education: What are the proper aims of the university? What role do the liberal arts play in fulfilling those aims? What is the justification for the humanities? How should we conceive of critical reflection, and how should we teach it to our students? How should professors approach their intellectual relationship with students, both in social interaction and through curriculum? What obligations do elite institutions have to correct for their historical role in racial and social inequality? And, perhaps most important of all: How can the university serve as a model of justice? The result is a refreshingly thoughtful approach to higher education and what it can, and should, be doing. 

Index

academic friendship, 5, 52–71, 155n31; autonomy and, 52, 56–61; developing qualities of mind in, 52–54, 66–69; as elite ideal, 52, 69–71; goals of, 52–53; imagination and, 61–62, 66, 71, 72n17; inequalities in, 54–55; investigation of intellectual complexity in, 64–65; limited duration of, 69; sharing of informed appreciation in, 62–63, 68–69; types of relationships in, 52–56

academic gender gap, 162

academy schools, 128–32, 135n46

access to higher education, 4, 8–14, 24n12, 148

Ackerman, Bruce, 89n8

active thought, 150–51. See also critical thinking

admissions policies, 5–6; desert and merit in, 146–48; equal opportunity practices in, 115–19, 122, 130, 133n10, 141–46, 162; grades and test scores in, 147–48; need-blind practices in, 12, 24n14. See also diversity (demographic)

advancement of knowledge, 28–29, 44–47, 137, 147–50. See also investigation of intellectual complexity

advantages of higher education, 1–2

affirmative action, 116–19, 134n33, 154n14; class-conscious policies in, 127–28; diversity rationale in, 123, 125–28; gender achievement gap and, 162; reverse discrimination and, 123, 134n31; US Supreme Court decisions on, 116–18, 126, 155nn23–24

Altschuler, Glenn, 120, 121

Aristotle, 53–56, 84

Arneson, Richard, 49n5, 132n4

arts, the. See humanities, the

athletics, 161

Aumann, Robert, 72n17

authority of reason, 5, 57–61; empirical limitations on, 92–94; kinds of rational support in, 57–59, 72n13; modeling of, 59–61, 87; vs. victory in argument, 69

autonomy, 4–5, 74–87; academic friendship and, 52, 56–61; appreciation of positive conviction in, 81, 83, 87; authority of reason in, 57–59, 72n13; charity and humility in, 74, 82–88, 91nn21–23; content neutrality in, 85–86; critical thinking in, 76–77, 80–81, 151; modeling of, 59–61, 87; moral individualism in, 78–79; p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• One / Introduction: Problems of Morality and Justice in Higher Education
• Two / What Makes a University Education Worthwhile?
• Three / Defending the Humanities in a Liberal Society
• Four / Academic Friendship
• Five / Autonomy as Intellectual Virtue
• Six / Education and Social Moral Epistemology
• Seven / Righting Historical Injustice in Higher Education
• Eight / Modeling Justice in Higher Education
• Nine / Conclusion: Future Research on Values in Higher Education
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Index