Uniwersytet: logos i logo
University: logos and logo

Summary/Abstract: Following the call of Kazimierz Twardowski, who in 1936 spoke of “the dignity of the university”, this essay is an attempt to examine the extent to which this idea is still valid. By distinguishing between “governance” (critical analysis of the situation and advocating adequate means not only for describing, but also for changing the world) and “management” (serving primarily not to renew or change the world, but to achieve quantifiable results in the application of well-known and thoroughly elaborated administrative and financial measures), we show that one of the main problems in the academy today is the lack of a proper critical distance to the accepted ways of organizing the world, recognized, too hastily, as uncontested. This is why universities have had imposed on them a discourse of economics as the only means of conducting and describing their activities. Without neglecting in any way economic factors, it is necessary to refuse to follow the techno-bureaucratic policies being applied in universities as a means of “forcing” results in research. The task and role of the university are rooted in a deep conviction that the problems of today's world cannot be solved solely through the belief they are purely economic in nature. The University has always demanded we recognize the moral causes of the difficulties that place a strain on our common existence. What is forgotten by the techno-bureaucracy currently “managing” science and education, is, as Leszek Kołakowski summed up perfectly, fact that: “(...) for at least some of the great problems facing mankind there are no purely technical or organizational solutions”, because they require, above all, a “spiritual transformation”.

• Details
• Contents