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By Root 477 0

first1 hit on the notion of a university and proposed that a public institution of this kind be established, it was not a bad idea to handle the entire content of learning (really, the thinkers devoted to it) by mass production, so to speak—by a division of labor, so that for every branch of the sciences there would be a public teacher or professor appointed as its trustee, and all of these together would form a kind of learned community called a university (or higher school). The university would have a certain autonomy (since only scholars can pass judgment on scholars as such) and accordingly it would be authorized to perform certain functions through its faculties.

The three pillars upon which the university rests, as Kant envisioned it, are the principle of autonomy or self-determination, the mechanical logic of industrialism, and the distinction between usefulness and uselessness. As we will see, these principles are still the foundation of higher education. All of them must be changed.

Recalling Adam Smith’s account of the machinations of the market and anticipating the logic that would eventually give rise to the assembly lines that made industrial capitalism profitable, Kant argued that the university produces education for mass consumption. In order to function efficiently, the labor process must be divided into separate departments and subdepartments, each of which has different expertise, tasks and responsibilities. The educational product is packaged as individual courses that are discrete units with set values. Each course is the same size or length and conforms to university-wide standards. In order to be certified by the university, students must pass through a preestablished program whose requirements are set by the faculty and administration. The most important aspect of Kant’s organizational structure is the division between the “higher” faculties, which include theology, law and medicine, and the “lower” faculty, which is philosophical. The philosophical faculty includes all departments and programs in what we today call the arts and sciences.

The distinction between the higher faculties and lower faculty reflects Kant’s lingering commitment to certain aspects of the medieval university and wariness of relying on government support. By distinguishing the responsibilities of professional schools from the faculty of arts and sciences, Kant created a source of conflict between faculties that still plagues universities. In contrast to independent academies, where there is research but no teaching, and the gymnasium (i.e., high school), where there is teaching but no research, the university is designed to combine research and teaching. Kant’s description of members of the higher faculties is very important for the later history of the university:

While only the scholar2 [i.e., member of the lower faculty] can provide the principles underlying their functions, it is enough that they [i.e., members of the higher faculties] retain empirical knowledge of the statutes relevant to their office (hence what has to do with practice). Accordingly, they can be called the businessmen or technicians of learning. As tools of the government (clergymen, magistrates and physicians), they have legal influence on the public and form a special class of the intelligentsia, who are not free to make public use of their learning as they see fit, but are subject to the censorship of the faculties.

When Kant described students in theology, law and medicine as “businessmen or technicians of learning” who are “tools of the government,” he chose his words very carefully. These phrases are not neutral but express a value judgment that has had a profound influence on the subsequent history of higher education. While Kant acknowledges the necessity for the university to serve the state by providing educated citizens, he clearly thinks the role the philosophical faculty plays is more important. Furthermore, he realizes that strings are always attached. In accepting money from the state, the university agrees to limit the freedom