The Ideal of the University is a lucid, comprehensive analysis
of the rationale, principles, and presuppositions that make
contemporary universities what they are.
The book begins with four sharp, carefully delineated models of
a university. After analyzing such controversial issues as the role
of grading in the university and the "myth" of value neutrality.
Wolff turns to the crucial question of how the university should be
governed. He argues for a radical reconstruction based on a "social
contract" that would place ultimate authority in the hands of the
faculty and students. The book concludes with a series of
"practical proposals for Utopian reform," including such
provocative recommendations as a variable-length, ungraded
undergraduate program and elimination of the Ph.D. degree.
In his introduction to this new edition, Wolff expands upon his
original speculations to argue in substantive detail for the
liberating potential of the liberal arts. Drawing upon Freud and
Marcuse, Wolff proposes that literature, art, and philosophy embody
a promise of gratification that engenders a negative critique of
the social and cultural status quo. The rationale for the liberal
arts university is society's need for a reservoir of critical
thinking that is the motor of social, economic, and political
progress. Elegantly written and passionately argued; The Ideal of
the University is essential reading for educators and
sociologists.
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