‘IDEAS VIVAS’: QUESTIONING, CRITIQUE AND THE MISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The global financial crisis has focused attention on the need to reduce public expenditure; in the UK this has led to drastic cuts across the public sector, including higher education. The crisis, however, raises fundamental questions about the kind of society we want and the kind of education desirable in a modern democratic society. The paper considers the place of critique in the work of Newman and MacIntyre as a fruitful starting point from which to think about the kind of university that would be valuable to a healthy democratic society. For both writers a tradition of questioning is essential in a university education, a tradition that is tied up with the idea of community. Whilst each has a coherent conceptualisation of community, the paper argues that ultimately these are too restrictive and that what we need, instead, is to recognise what is uncommon. This may offer greater possibilities for ensuring the place of critique in the university and for keeping alive the kinds of questions that confront us within and beyond our communities. Without a doubt, we are constantly challenged by questions that confront us in our lives and we are constantly put into question over our community. In thinking about the kind of university education we need in a healthy democracy it must be one that keeps alive the tradition of questioning and of critique.