Freedom and Interdisciplinarity: The Future of the University Curriculum

• Autores: Yehuda Elkana
• Localización: Social research: An international quarterly of the social sciences, ISSN 0037-783X, Nº. 3, 2009 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Free inquiry at Risk: universities in dangerous times, part II), págs. 933-942
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • I would like to argue that to a large extent universities are themselves to blame for their failure to respond adequately to external pressures of the day. Barring the work of a few exceptional departments and individuals here and there, universities are incapable of addressing precisely those problems that most preoccupy our societies nowadays. Granted, universities rightly regard themselves as playing a key role in preserving intellectual, academic and cultural traditions. This, however, should not be taken to be an acceptable excuse for not dealing with fundamental social injustices and discrepancies - problems often deemed to lie outside the scope of a university's legitimate interests. Since universities are by far the most important institutions in any modern society entrusted with the task of creating knowledge (whether the exclusivity of this knowledge-creating role is a good thing is another question), they should also strive to apply the knowledge created there to major social issues at any given time. This paper substantiates this thesis through some examples, and discusses its bearing on the future of the university curriculum