Monday, October 09, 2006
I think this is times select, so don't stress if you can't read it.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/
The piece is Stanley Fish trotting out that favorite conservative boogie man, the university, for ridicule. In this case, Fish is deriding universities for attempting to enforce morality through divestment. He lauds universities that don't get too uppity when he praises Wisconsin-Madison's refusal to take a stand against the invasion of Iraq by stating "the University of Wisconsin has no foreign policy." This anecdote underscores Fish's larger point which is "why don't you stick to teaching and learning." On the surface, this isn't an absurd statement. On the subject of divestiture, it rings very similar to Jim Cramer's (of the epileptic "Mad Money") response to buying stocks in profitable, but morally questionable nations and enterprises, "Some is going to make that money, why shouldn't it be you." Although superficially, Cramer and Fish are talking about different things, beneath the surface they are talking about the same thing: the compartmentalization of society and the ultimate subservience of morality to finance. If capital is always privilged over morality, then morality can never win a battle where it is set at odds with capital. For Fish to tell universities that the morality of investments isn't their business is for him to say that capital should be privileged over morality and that universities are a vocational device for the creation of good workers for the national economy. This level of brutal pragmatism is already at work to a large degree in universities. this is a cynical and flawed view of universities but one that rings the same tone insidiously oversimplified common sense as much of conservativism.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/
The piece is Stanley Fish trotting out that favorite conservative boogie man, the university, for ridicule. In this case, Fish is deriding universities for attempting to enforce morality through divestment. He lauds universities that don't get too uppity when he praises Wisconsin-Madison's refusal to take a stand against the invasion of Iraq by stating "the University of Wisconsin has no foreign policy." This anecdote underscores Fish's larger point which is "why don't you stick to teaching and learning." On the surface, this isn't an absurd statement. On the subject of divestiture, it rings very similar to Jim Cramer's (of the epileptic "Mad Money") response to buying stocks in profitable, but morally questionable nations and enterprises, "Some is going to make that money, why shouldn't it be you." Although superficially, Cramer and Fish are talking about different things, beneath the surface they are talking about the same thing: the compartmentalization of society and the ultimate subservience of morality to finance. If capital is always privilged over morality, then morality can never win a battle where it is set at odds with capital. For Fish to tell universities that the morality of investments isn't their business is for him to say that capital should be privileged over morality and that universities are a vocational device for the creation of good workers for the national economy. This level of brutal pragmatism is already at work to a large degree in universities. this is a cynical and flawed view of universities but one that rings the same tone insidiously oversimplified common sense as much of conservativism.
# posted by 8yearoldsdude @ 11:57 AM 
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Princeton is thinking about these things. Or at least some of it's profs are. But does anybody actually attend these lectures? If they do, it's only because Stanley Katz is an excellent speaker. --EWK
The Just University with Professor Stanley Katz
Stan Katz, Professor in Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, will attempt to provide an ethical analysis of the function of the modern university, an institution whose apparently straightforward teaching and research functions have been so transformed in the past half century that traditional standards of university behavior no longer seem adequate. What is the responsibility of the university to others—its local and national communities, its staff, the global community? What are the limits of academic freedom? Who ought to control the university? What does “accountability” mean for a twenty-first century university? Professor Katz will speak and then facilitate a discussion on these and other fundamental questions.
Monday, October 16, 4:30- 6:00 p.m. in 328 Frist.
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The Just University with Professor Stanley Katz
Stan Katz, Professor in Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, will attempt to provide an ethical analysis of the function of the modern university, an institution whose apparently straightforward teaching and research functions have been so transformed in the past half century that traditional standards of university behavior no longer seem adequate. What is the responsibility of the university to others—its local and national communities, its staff, the global community? What are the limits of academic freedom? Who ought to control the university? What does “accountability” mean for a twenty-first century university? Professor Katz will speak and then facilitate a discussion on these and other fundamental questions.
Monday, October 16, 4:30- 6:00 p.m. in 328 Frist.
# posted by 
: 5:12 PM
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