14th Bacchus reading group meeting

Michael Oakeshott (2003) The Idea of a University, Academic Questions / Winter 2003-04

• ·He makes an interesting point in the beginning of the paper that “ideals” and “purposes” are never in and of themselves the source of human activities, but rather represent a short hand for what it means to be alive.

  • Alive, in his connotation means that there is a constant (never-ending) flurry of activity to engage in.

• He mentions that the contempt for the “poor pedant” might be a mistake, as

  • “it judges scholar’s activity by its use, and finds it pedantic when it appears useless.”  

  • Which means, that the charge of pedantry is both a mechanism to disqualify any criticism and reveals an instrumental view of knowledge which cares less about the accuracy of a statement and more about it supposed utility

• A pedantic point about that could be made about the paper, is that it conceptualises the university only in terms of scholars, scholars who teach and students, which leaves out vast swath of the university ecosystem

  • For example, it leaves out administrative and managerial staff, it leaves out estate workers, union representatives, the local council which has a stake in the tax revenue of a university that might be the single biggest employer in a town, the wider external stakeholders that are subject to knowledge exchange and wider society in general.

  • Whilst we can understand of why Oakshot may think it beneath him to engage with these other stakeholders, it is not self-evident of how these are not also related to the function and imaginary space that a university occupies.

• The most interesting point about the entire essay, is certainly the idea of “the gift of the interval”

  • Which according to Oakshott is the ability for a student to breath and reflect, sample and make association of different kinds of knowledge, in order to find their own voice and point of view.

  • In this sense, the idea of a university represents a transformational experience that allows student the ability to not be concerned with wordly affairs and focus on things that matter, to them on their own terms.

  • Whilst idealistic, it nonetheless is a powerful argument, as indeed such a space, if it can be maintained has undoubtedly its role within a free and democratic society

    • If we were to think of its “use” for something that may appear “useless” in the moment

• He raises another connected point, in relation to the gift of the interval, and that is namely what that interval is positioned in between. According to him this is:

  • “the curse of Adam, the burdensome distinction between work and play”

  • In theological terms, the curse of adam represents the fall from paradise, after eating of the forbidden fruit of knowledge, where the decedents of Adam are condemned to toil the earth until the last of their days.

  • Presumably, he means it in a worldly connotation of where we – as human beings – are in the constant status conflicts about resources, in order to ensure our survival.

  • In such a circumstance, having a guiding star, and ideal to remind oneself of what is important, can represent a powerful psychological device to maintain ones own integrity

    • Scholarly or worldly