A collection of articles on EDUCATION. For newspaper articles on the theme that education creates knowledge, which has the power to change the world, see LINK -- another page which contains my summary AND a book review: Reuben Summary & Review
Julie Reuben: The Creation of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality.
In 1884, Harvard University adopted a seal which represented the unity of knowledge: Truth was “encyclopeadic”. It was all of one piece, embracing spiritual, moral, and cognitive. By 1930’s this unity was shattered, with positivism driving a wedge between factual cognitive knowledge and moral/spiritual knowledge. Science was value-free (Weber), and distinct from morality. Late nineteenth century colleges had the explicit goal to build character and promote morality (understanding of duties to family, community, country and God) while at the same time contributing to the advancement of knowledge. These two goals proved to be incompatible. Changing circumstances and conception of the nature of science and knowledge ultimately forced universities to (reluctantly) abandon the moral goal and embrace only the second goal: the promotion of knowledge. The book documents this historical transition in life of US Universities over the period 1880-1930 which has led to the creation of the modern university.
Document below provides a SUMMARY of the book, and can be downloaded from link below: