If one were tempted to dispose of the present topic in a single sentence, the sentence no doubt would assert that since the distinctive role of universities is the advancement of knowledge, the principal obligation of universities toward communication is to contribute to our knowledge of it. And within limits-with which I shall presently deal-the proposition is valid. Ever since universities began to emerge in European civilization, we have turned to them for generalized and empirically verifiable images of man and nature.
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