Spring Break
A gulf between institutions
Schubert Ogden, with a foreward by Susanne Johnson, Contributing Writers
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Opinion
"In sum: the housing of an unfree school within a free university is a contradiction: it may be in the university but, being unfree, it is not of the university, and it has no business being there."- Matthew W. Finkin
The principles underlying these statements, I believe, are astoundingly simple. In understanding ourselves and our world and leading our lives as human beings, we form beliefs and we perform actions, some of which are typically selected out as normative for some or all of the others. In all of this we perforce make or imply certain claims for the validity of our beliefs and actions-claims to truth and claims to rightness.
But making or implying such claims is one thing, doing so validly, something else. So precisely in order to live as we do and to live well-and then, to live still better, we have recourse to the special practice of critically validating our beliefs and actions, including, not least, those that have been selected out to serve as customary norms.
In other words, we engage in the process of critical reflection in all its various forms, whereby we critically interpret what we mean in thinking, saying, and doing what we do and then critically validate the claims we make or imply in all the different spheres of our life. When this process of critical reflection is eventually formalized and institutionalized, it becomes what, in our cultural tradition, has come to be understood as "the university." This means that the whole point of any institution such as SMU or of any of its essential parts, whether in the humanities and sciences or in the various professional areas (law, engineering, business, theology) is somehow to advance the same process of critical reflection in a deliberate, methodical, and reasoned way-that is, by reflecting on the claims to validity made or implied in some sphere of human life as to validate or, as the case may be, invalidate them.
But the university as whole and all of its schools and departments must be free to advance this constitutive process - the two cardinal principles defining the constitution of the university and its integrity are institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Whatever its foundation, private or public, or its relation to other institutions such as state and church, the university as an institution must be autonomous-free to pursue its own distinctive purpose and therefore free from anything that would interfere with this pursuit.
The principles underlying these statements, I believe, are astoundingly simple. In understanding ourselves and our world and leading our lives as human beings, we form beliefs and we perform actions, some of which are typically selected out as normative for some or all of the others. In all of this we perforce make or imply certain claims for the validity of our beliefs and actions-claims to truth and claims to rightness.
But making or implying such claims is one thing, doing so validly, something else. So precisely in order to live as we do and to live well-and then, to live still better, we have recourse to the special practice of critically validating our beliefs and actions, including, not least, those that have been selected out to serve as customary norms.
In other words, we engage in the process of critical reflection in all its various forms, whereby we critically interpret what we mean in thinking, saying, and doing what we do and then critically validate the claims we make or imply in all the different spheres of our life. When this process of critical reflection is eventually formalized and institutionalized, it becomes what, in our cultural tradition, has come to be understood as "the university." This means that the whole point of any institution such as SMU or of any of its essential parts, whether in the humanities and sciences or in the various professional areas (law, engineering, business, theology) is somehow to advance the same process of critical reflection in a deliberate, methodical, and reasoned way-that is, by reflecting on the claims to validity made or implied in some sphere of human life as to validate or, as the case may be, invalidate them.
But the university as whole and all of its schools and departments must be free to advance this constitutive process - the two cardinal principles defining the constitution of the university and its integrity are institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Whatever its foundation, private or public, or its relation to other institutions such as state and church, the university as an institution must be autonomous-free to pursue its own distinctive purpose and therefore free from anything that would interfere with this pursuit.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Dr. Andrew J. Weaver
posted 3/02/07 @ 7:49 AM EST
Professor Shubert Ogden was the most important and influential teacher in my life. His passion for the truth and fierce integrity is recognized within the church and the academy. (Continued…)
Mark Monson
posted 3/02/07 @ 12:34 PM EST
I have never heard anyone argue that the Bush Institute's policies cannot be questioned, or "reflected upon." Any "great gulf" that exists is in the mind of those who are scared of opinions different from their own. (Continued…)
Barbara Nordfors
posted 3/05/07 @ 2:43 PM EST
I congratulate the publishing of Schubert M. Ogden's letter. Beautiful! Because a Southern Methodist University education represented/represents innovation and creativity, I, a former Montanan, desired 40 years ago to be a student on the campus of SMU . (Continued…)
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