Dear Harvey,

Your paper seems to me to describe the transformation of the University over 
the last few decades from (at least in terms of intention) 'intellectual 
community' to 'commercial organization'. It goes on to call for some kind of 
return to the former, wherein the University can regain 'authenticity' (I 
prefer this term to 'authority') as a gathering of honest enquirers worth 
listening to, not just another competitive organization scrabbling for 
short-term 'success', and playing whatever sociobiological game of 
neo-Darwinian convenience (not truth) is necessary to ensure its 
self-preservation.

I feel much in accord with this description and call, as well as your focus 
on the need for creative and 'discerning' (I prefer this to 'critical') 
enquiry into our present 'dynamic condition' (I prefer this to 'Age' or 
'state'). But, to fulfil your vision, I think it is necessary to develop new 
(at least 'new' in the sense of 'in a new context') forms of reasoning and 
kinds of questions that don't fall back on definitive logical premises 
(which are based not on evidence but on convenient and simplistic 
supposition). I think these forms of reasoning and enquiry go beyond those 
of 'conventional pragmatism'. At their heart is the question:

 'what is the fundamental nature of evolutionarily sustainable communities?'

And at the heart of this question is

'what kind of geometry underlies evolutionarily sustainable processes?'

When the latter question is addressed, it becomes apparent that 
rationalistic notions of organizational structure and process are based on 
stultifyingly definitive, localized concepts of 'space, centres and 
boundaries' that are deeply embedded in the discontinuous logical 
foundations of classical and modern mathematics. Here is a quote that I have 
recently been alerted to from Wittgenstein:

""For the crystal purity of logic [symmetry] was not the result of our 
investigation, it was an imposed requirement" ... "the pre-judice of crystal 
purity can only be removed by turning our whole investigation around.  ("one 
might say, the axis of reference of our investigation must be rotated about 
the centerpoint of our own need.")

I think that the 'New University of the Present Condition' could turn our 
static, crystalline 'whole investigation around' into a fluid dynamic 'hole 
investigation', which 'includes the inductive influence of receptive space 
in natural energy flow'. Then we might melt the rationalistic ice that has 
suppressed human intuition, love and creativity and develop compassionate 
and co-creative (neither definitively competitive nor co-operative) human 
social formations that are more akin in their dynamic relationships to 
evolutionarily sustainable natural communities of diversity, not 
uni(versi)ties of conformity.


Warmest

Alan







----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harvey Sarles" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 2:37 AM
Subject: a Vision: The Idea of the University in the Present Age


> FOW,
>
> I spent a number of years trying to examine the nature of the
> "modern" University - as observer, critic, "visionary. "Wandered"
> into most of the disciplines in a very large "public" University, and
> taught (for a number of years) a course in trying to examine/
> interview the thinking of members of various disciplines  - which I
> attempt to understand as "cultures" - different modes of thought,
> subject, and thinking.
>
> As the recent FOW Newsletter (#3) tends to focus on how to "change"
> the University, especially in the contexts of Nick Maxwell's
> critiique in "From Knowledge to Wisdom," I am sharing my "visiion" of
> the (future) University, and how to "get there." Comments please.
>
> Harvey
>
>


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