Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Holden, Robert H.

Titel

The Public University's Unbearable Defiance of Being

Ist Teil von

• Educational philosophy and theory, 2009-09, Vol.41 (5), p.575-591

Ort / Verlag

Oxford, UK: Taylor & Francis Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Modernity has imposed on many of us, and perhaps especially on academics, a habit of silence with regard to what John Rawls called deeply held 'comprehensive' moral beliefs. According to Rawls and his many disciples, the survival of liberalism depends upon the bracketing of comprehensive beliefs whenever we step into the public sphere. And in the field of higher education, that would have to include the classroom, the lab, the library carrel, the hotel conference suites where we confer and exchange ideas, as well as the vast academic publishing apparatus. I would like to call attention to the way that the supposed requirement of the Rawlsian silence is being challenged, not just by conservative critics but even by such a staunch defender of conventional liberalism as Jürgen Habermas. Second, if Habermas and the other critics are right, then a fortiori, the public university-perhaps the most representative and exemplary of all the institutions of civil society-ought to welcome the infusion of relevant but closely held beliefs, including religious ones, in carrying out its research and teaching responsibilities.