The Moral Collapse of the University: Professionalism, Purity, and Alienation (S U N Y Series in Philosophy of Education)

The Moral Collapse of the University Professionalism, Purity, and Alienation (SUNY Series, Educational Leadership This book is a brilliant and timely analysis of the misguided mission of the modern university. Through a close description of the actual situations of teaching and research, he is able to unveil the deeper roots of problems whose surface symptoms have been felt by students and teachers alike. He finds these roots to lie in suppressed features of the academic environment - features that reflect unacknowledged beliefs about the body-self and emotional reality - and he brings to the light of day the unsuspected presence of purification rituals on the part of professional educators. Instead of simply decrying the phenomenon, he goes on to indicate constructive directions for changing the university in ways that more faithfully reflect the actual needs and desires of all who attempt to learn in a humane manner. This book moves the ongoing debate about the fate of higher education in America onto a new plane, taking a significant step beyond Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind Alienation -- What Is The Educating Act? -- Crisis Of Authority And Identity : The Inevitability Of Professionalism -- The Professionalization Of The University -- A Specimen Case Of Professionalizing A Field Of Learning : Philosophy -- Eccentricities And Distortions Of Academic Professionalism -- Academic Professionalism As A Veiled Purification Ritual -- Pollution Phenomena : John Dewey's Encounter With Body-self -- Revolutionary Thought Of The Early Twentieth Century : Reintegrating Self And World And A New Foundation For Humane Knowledge -- The Reactionary Response Of Positivism : Cementing Purification, Professionalism, Segmentation In The University -- Recovering From Positivism And Reorganizing The University -- Reclaiming The Vision Of Education : Redefining Definition, Identity, Gender. Bruce Wilshire. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. 0791401979,9780791401972,0791401960,9780791401965 State University of New York Press