Contemporary Philosophical Proposals for the University

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Introduction: Toward a Philosophy of Higher Education

   • Aaron Stoller, Eli Kramer

   Pages 1-23

3. The Problematic Situation: Challenges Facing Higher Education

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. Postmodern Worldmaking and the Unanimous Academy

      • Crispin Sartwell

      Pages 27-45

   3. Neoliberalism, Technology, and the University: Max Weber’s Concept of Rationalization as a Critique of Online Classes in Higher Education

      • Gabriel Keehn, Morgan Anderson, Deron Boyles

      Pages 47-66

   4. Promoting More than Just “Diversity” at Colleges and Universities

      • Dwayne A. Tunstall

      Pages 67-77

4. The Wellspring of Experience: Reflections on Robust Higher Education

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79

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   2. En Route: Toward a Philosophy and Practice of Liberal Education

      • L. Jackson Newell

      Pages 81-102

   3. The Conversation of a University

      • George Allan

      Pages 103-122

5. Generalization: Reconstructive Proposals for the University

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123

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   2. Culture and the University: An Ecological Approach

      • Ronald Barnett

      Pages 125-144

   3. Education for Citizenship in an Era of Global Connection

      • Martha Nussbaum

      Pages 145-159

   4. An African Theory of the Point of Higher Education: Communion as an Alternative to Autonomy, Truth, and Citizenship

      • Thaddeus Metz

      Pages 161-186

6. Return to Experience: Reconstruction Put into Practice

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 187-187

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   2. Remaking the Academy: The Potential and the Challenge of Transdisciplinary Collaborative Engagement

      • Danielle Lake, Amy McFarland, Jessica Jennrich

      Pages 189-214

7. Future Inquiry: Higher Education in the Coming Century

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215

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   2. The Coming Revolution in (Higher) Education: Process, Time, and Singularity

      • Randall Auxier

      Pages 217-260

8. Back Matter

   Pages 261-268

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This edited collection brings together a robust range of philosophers who offer theoretically and critically informed proposals regarding the aims, policies, and structures of the university. The collection fills a major gap in the landscape of higher education theory and practice while concurrently reviving a long and often forgotten discourse within the discipline of philosophy. It includes philosophers from across the globe representing disparate philosophical schools, as well as various career stages, statuses, and standpoints within the university. There is also a diversity in method, approach and style, which varies from personal narratives and case studies, to philosophical genealogies, to traditional philosophical essays, and to systematic theories. The collection can serve as a theoretical resource for critically minded administrators and faculty who wish to analyze and change policies and structures at their home institutions. It will introduce them to a wide range of possible educational imaginaries, as well as provide them with productive suggestions for pragmatic change on campuses. 

• critical university studies
• critical engagement in higher education
• John Dewey
• philosophy of education
• neoliberalism

“The editors of this exciting new collection argue that university professors lack shared vocabularies for diagnosing the university’s current problems and deliberating together to resolve them. Each chapter then provides the critical resources, new vocabularies, and modes of organizing to move toward solutions. Readers will come away ready and eager to join a renewed dialogue about the future of the university.” (Leonard Waks, Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership at Temple University, USA)

“The university is one of civilization’s preeminent institutions because it was designed to lead, rather than follow, social development. Today, other social forces feel entitled to infiltrate and manage higher education. Philosophy created the university, and is responsible for sustaining its vision for tomorrow. This collection of timely essays is required reading for anyone still daring to think that education should fulfill a higher purpose.” (John R. Shook, Adjunct Professor of Learning and Instruction, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA)

• First Year Exerience, Colorado College First Year Exerience, Colorado Springs, CO, USA

  Aaron Stoller

• Department of the Philosophy of Culture, Institute of Philosophy of the University of Warsaw, Warsaw, USA

  Eli Kramer

Aaron Stoller is Director of First Year Experience at Colorado College, USA.


Eli Kramer is an affiliated researcher at the Department of the Philosophy of Culture at the University of Warsaw Institute of Philosophy, Poland. He is also a Philosophy PhD Candidate at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA.

Policies and ethics