Universitas and Moral Excellence Higher Education and the Judicious Use of Knowledge

by Hostetter, Ray D.

• ISBN13: 9780761836599
• ISBN10: 0761836594
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-15
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

This work was born out of a concern that the advancement of society's underlying moral strength is becoming increasingly weaker. Due to this deficiency, there is a call to educators, particularly at the college and university levels, to give careful and collective attention to the three groundings that are consonant with well-functioning societies-morality, rationality, and personal responsibility.The book discusses the universitas model (the historic function of an advanced academic community) as a reference for dialogue and reasoning in the pursuit of moral excellence. Dr. Hostetter articulates that higher educational institutions should seek to understand and restore this model with the ultimate aim of formulating a meaningful institutional worldview. Denoting _entirety_ and signifying _all together,_ universitas requires that a high measure of solidarity should be demonstrated. The work outlines potential steps and essential aspects of the universitas idea that institutions might consider useful.

Author Biography

D. Ray Hostetter, served as president of Messiah College from 1964 to 1994.

Table of Contents

Higher education and its changing stripes	p. 1
The Universitas vision and its life	p. 3
The Universitas idea dominates learning (from university beginnings to circa 1850)	p. 17
The Universitas vision encounters dispute (circa 1850 to circa 1970)	p. 29
The Universitas idea becomes fragmented and unintelligible (circa 1970 to the present)	p. 59
Factors to consider for retrieval of key Universitas elements	p. 79
Higher education and the judicious use of knowledge	p. 107
Higher education and engagement in making moral discernments	p. 109
Universitas within a given religious framework (exemplar - the Christian religion)	p. 145
Universitas shaped by a particular ideology or tradition (exemplars - liberalism and liberal education)	p. 179
Universitas premised on a unique "vision of virtues"	p. 199
Universal morality as a work of art	p. 215
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