What is the purpose of a University within a society?
First, we should probably define what a university is: a university is a central hub of brains. That is, a university exists as a hub for the intellectual elite of a society. It’s where all the smart people go. And it’s where a small group of really smart people stay.
What’s the purpose of a having a hub of smart people?
Within every society, like attracts like. It’s science. When you have individual nodes operating within a free plane of existence, those nodes tend to congregate together with other like-minded nodes (as long as they are free to do so). Birds of a feather flock together.
Smart people want to be around smart people. It’s a natural instinct. And so, when enough smart people get together, you can call that a hub. And then, on top of that, we can give that hub a conventional name ‘university’. But for all intents and purposes, it’s merely a hub for smart people to congregate together.
Ok, so what? What then is the role for that hub of smart people with the context of a given society?
To understand the essence of a university, you can look at our own bodies. We have arms and legs that do the work of the body. We have eyes that see things for the body. We have mouths used to access food and for communication for the body. And then you have the brain. The brain exists as the field commander of the body. It’s where our decisions are made. And it’s where the information we gather from our eyes, mouth, emotions, etc., is turned into understanding that we can use.
In that same line of understanding, the university is the brain of a society. It’s where the variables of nature are analyzed, and then, with some thought, are explicated to make sense of what we see.
The purpose of the university is to help the rest of society deal with its problems. The university has a strong advantage. They don’t have to work. Well, they don’t have to work like everyone else. They have free time to analyze different problems in front of them with their minds. And they do that, then they write a paper, and then perhaps a book. The best universites are engaged in the biggest problems of our society. And because of their free time, they get to think about things that most people don’t have the time to think about.
That’s where their compartive advantage lies: they have time to think about the biggest problems. They can use their time, and their powers of reasoning and deduction, to make sense of and to solve problems that we all face.
What’s the best way to govern a populace?
What’s the best way to form a network of roads?
What’s the best way to live?
What should we do about crime and punishments?
How do we get along with different nations?
What’s the best economic model for a varying class of individuals?
To me, those are a small part of the problems that a university should be trying to figure out. They should make a list of the biggest problem a society faces. Then, they should use their resources to solve the biggest problems. National universities solve national problems, and local universities solve local problems. They are the brains of the society. They are the ones that have the advantage to think through problems. And so that’s their responsiblity, and their opportunity.
At least, that’s my opinion on the purpose of a university within a society.
birds of a feather flock together brain nodes philosoophy philosophy of education smart
Posted on September 24th, 2007 by daniel
Filed under: Uncategorized
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