What Does "Academic" Mean?: Two Essays on the Chances of the University Today - Softcover

Pieper, Josef

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1587319330 ISBN 13: 9781587319334

Publisher: St. Augustines Press, 2015

Synopsis

"What Does "Academic" Mean? focuses, in two essays, on the prospects of contemporary universities. The term "academic" is traced back to Plato's Academy in a grove in Athens. The Academy is isolated, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Western universities founded in the Middle Ages show continuity, via Byzantium, with Plato's Academy. Not surprisingly, the Oxford Dictionary quoted by Pieper defines "academic" as "Not leading to a decision; unpractical." The preoccupation of the academic as academic is seen by Pieper to be fundamentally theoretical, not practical. Pure theory is that which cannot at all be pressed into service. Clearly, many university disciplines that are richly funded by industry and business concerns tend to be favored by university administrations, which, intent on financial survival, frown on "unproductive" disciplines such as pure philosophy: metaphysics being a case in point, since it is the discipline least capable of practical application"--

About this title

About the Author

Josef Pieper is considered the greatest Thomist philosopher of the twentieth century, and is the author of many work in philosophy and theology. St. Augustine’s Press has published over thirteen of his works thus far.

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Augustines Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1587319330
• ISBN 13: 9781587319334
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 92