The Non-modern Crisis of the Modern University

Abstract

Abstract This article offers a synthesis of the book La crisis no moderna de la universidad moderna and reconsiders many of its main claims, without, however, rehearsing the conceptual history that the book develops. These claims bear on several non-modern crises, crises affecting (1) the modern conflict between knowledge and thought; (2) the modern dispute between the superior, technical faculties and the inferior, critical faculty; (3) the university understood as the original source of ends-driven research, on the one hand, and open-ended, unconditional research, on the other; (4) the modern categories used to understand the university; (5) the university community defined as an organic unity of knowledges; and (6) the autonomy, the untimeliness, the philosophy of history, the enthusiastic mission, and the epic narrative of the modern university. In the Chilean context, these crises coincided with the military dictatorship (1973–90), which carried out a juridical and constitutional transition that was also a transformation of the university. No longer defined as a state-administered institution guided by the developmentalist goal of ensuring the nation's progress, the university became a corporate institution that instead seeks to protect the revenues of multinational corporations. Indeed, the university belongs to these corporations. Effected by the dictatorship, this transition was legally reinforced, naturalized, and supported by post-dictatorship forms of democratic governmentality.