Word: lipset
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...direct and understandable way, Lipset's concern for his subject is an outgrowth of the upheavals foisted upon academia by the student revolts of the late 1960s. Early in the essay he writer...
...Lipset, a member of the Faculty's conservative caucus (in the essay he refers to it as the moderate caucus), obviously was distressed by the turn University politics took in the sixties and equally discouraged by Harvard's institutional response to the challenge of student radicalism. The people who controlled Harvard--liberal administrators and faculty--failed, in Lipset's eyes, to appreciate the historical context and the historical implications of the "attack on academic freedom." In his essay, Lipset sets out to draw the appropriate lessons and to inform the University of its higher interests...
...LIPSET'S THESIS IS a simple one: political activity is endemic to institutions such as Harvard because of the nature of their intellectual endeavor. Scholarly innovativeness, he writes, engenders certain values which lead in a natural way to political concerns. These values include skepticism about existing knowledge and a universalism that treats all things connected with scholarly pursuit according to impersonal criteria. The academic's skepticism brings him into conflict with the reigning powers in society while his universalism leads the scholar to oppose "those aspects of stratified societies that limit equality of opportunity." Despite the obvious conflicts between scholars...
...order to demonstrate his thesis, Lipset reviews 338 years of Harvard history--mostly through a synthesis of secondary accounts--to show that Harvard indeed has had its share of political controversies and that the principles of academic freedom were often called upon by professional scholars in Cambridge to protect the integrity of independent thought from meddling governing boards and other non-academically oriented groups. Lipset's historical narrative is not altogether satisfactory, but its reliance on captivating details at least provides for enjoyable reading...
...Lipset divides political activity into several categories. First, there are internal power-struggles between governing boards, administrators and academics. Second, he recounts numerous philosophically based disputes over educational policy. Early on in Harvard's history these disputes were religiously oriented pitting traditional Congregationalists against the more liberal Unitarians. In later years, the fights centered on whether the University should be primarily concerned with training and indoctrinating young minds or with providing the proper conditions for the production of new knowledge. Third, Lipset describes various student rebellions--over issues ranging from the quality of butter served in the dining comments...