The Review: U Can't Handle the Truth

A debate on truth, inquiry, and the purpose of higher ed. ADVERTISEMENT [The Review Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. What is the university’s ultimate purpose? The question sounds unhelpfully abstract, but it has remained an urgent one, however nebulous. In his foundational The Emergence of the American University (1965), the historian [Laurence Veysey]( that the American university is divided among three not always consonant ends: utility, i.e. professional training and the applied sciences; research, i.e. the disinterested pursuit of truth for its own sake, whether in philology, chemistry, mathematics, or whatever; and “liberal culture,” i.e. the formation of students’ souls via the transmission of literary and philosophical traditions. (This last is the most amorphous, and occasions some of Veysey’s wittiest prose: “The challenging task which faced the academic purveyor of culture was to implant the essence of a twenty-five-hundred-year-old civilization into the minds of youthful Americans, each of whom could be reached only in large groups allotted a mere three hours per week.”) Of these, “research” seems to be the most closely allied to “truth,” which Michael Veber, in a new Review essay, [insists forcefully]( is at the center of everything a university does — whether faculty members know it or not. Veber is responding to Amna Khalid and Jeffrey A. Snyder, who recently [argued]( that “‘truth’ is not a stable enough category to bear the weight of higher education’s entire mission.” The disagreement might look largely semantic, in which case the kind of care with definitions that Veber proposes could potentially resolve the issue: Is it the case that all of the words (like “teaching” or “knowledge”) that one might include in a description of the university’s purpose logically entail “truth” as part of their meaning, or are there things (like “instruction in the fine arts”) essential to the university that don’t make claims on truth? But in context, the debate is a pragmatic one. Of concern to both parties are ways of articulating the university’s mission that make clear the need for the robust support of academic freedom. Veber goes back to J.S. Mill to argue that academic freedom’s justification lies in the efficiency, with respect to knowledge-production, of a free marketplace of ideas, in which, in Mill’s words, “the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth” is “produced by its collision with error.” Khalid and Snyder, on the other hand, contend that since many faculty members simply do not understand themselves as engaged primarily in the discovery of “truth” (after all, is “truth” the paramount element of what Veysey calls “liberal culture”?), some other master concept would do a better job of recruiting scholars to academic freedom’s cause. Read Khalid and Snyder’s essay [here]( and Veber’s response [here](. And for more on the strange life and extraordinary career of Laurence Veysey, check out this 2015 [essay]( by Kevin Carey on “The Man Who Wrote the Greatest Book About American Higher Ed.” Over the next few months, I’ll be reading intensively in the history of American higher ed, and I’ll often write about what I’m reading here. If you have favorite books pertaining to the history of your discipline or of the university more generally, [tell me about them](len.gutkin@chronicle.com)! SPONSOR CONTENT | Vitalsource [Learning Science Proves Practice Does Make Perfect]( ADVERTISEMENT SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. The Latest THE REVIEW | OPINION [The Purpose of a University Isn’t Truth. It’s Inquiry.]( By Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder [STORY IMAGE]( Defenders of academic freedom forget this at their own peril. ADVERTISEMENT THE REVIEW | OPINION [Giving Up on Truth Is Giving Up on Free Speech]( By Michael Veber [STORY IMAGE]( Other justifications for the university are empty. THE REVIEW | OPINION [The Accreditation System Is Broken]( By Michael Itzkowitz [STORY IMAGE]( Lax standards threaten higher education’s credibility. THE REVIEW | OPINION [How to Sink Anti-CRT Bills]( By Timothy Messer-Kruse [STORY IMAGE]( The key is accreditation. Recommended - “Early on July 10, the fan — Eric Rohan Justin, 18, of Ellicott City, Md. — arrived with a shotgun at the Majury family home in Naples and blew open the front door.” At The New York Times, an [utterly dystopian story]( about TikTok, by Elizabeth Williamson. - “The irresistible compulsion to return to one’s own nightmare; the irreversibility of such a mental and verbal return; the chilling complexity of human nature; and the moral obligation to suspend judgment while considering how survivors made it out alive, and how they clung to their humanity inside — are the foundations of the film. These are the themes — not sex, not gender, not even power — that Cavani was trying to explore.” At Liberties, Celeste Marcus [makes the case]( for the widely reviled 1974 film The Night Porter with eloquence and conviction. I guess I’ll have to watch it now. - “Doing what the vocal majority demands in this instance would be a huge mistake.” At The New York Review of Books, the Georgetown law professor David Cole on how his institution should handle l’affaire [Ilya Shapiro](. And for thoughts on a different law-school controversy, read George F. Will in The Washington Post on [Jason Kilborn](. (Will draws significantly on the Review‘s [coverage]( of that situation by Andrew Koppelman.) - “It might seem incredible that you can hate the person you claim to love, yet that is exactly what happens when eros becomes a trap. But how did I fall into it?” At Harper’s, the philosopher Agnes Callard on [the destructive force of love]( which, she says, “the philosophical tradition has ceded ... to writers of fiction and poetry.” Write to me at len.gutkin@chronicle.com. Yours, Len Gutkin SPONSOR CONTENT | Rowan university [Built 'from scratch' Rowan University engineers fly drone swarms around the world]( Wowing audiences worldwide with artistic air shows, three Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering graduates return to campus to launch their biggest innovation yet. FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [The Missing Men on Campus]( [The Missing Men on Campus]( The gender gap in college enrollment has been growing for decades and has broad implications for colleges and beyond. Explore how some colleges are trying to draw more men of all backgrounds — and help them succeed once they get there. [Order your copy today.]( JOB OPPORTUNITIES Apply for the top jobs in higher education and [search all our open positions](. NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK What did you think of today’s newsletter? [Strongly disliked]( | [It was ok]( | [Loved it]( This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. [Read this newsletter on the web](. 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