No abstract

No abstract

Ich habe nicht die Absicht Ihnen die Philosophie beizubringen, sondern das Philosophieren. (I do not intend to teach you the philosophy, but how to philosophize.) -Immanuel KantIn 1798 Immanuel Kant published his important treatise, The Strife of the Faculties, in which he described-from a decidedly partisan point of view-the long and hectic struggle between the upper and lower faculties in the German university system of his day. This struggle he conceived as that of democratic libertarianism against the arbitrary demands of authoritarian state power. The upper faculties comprised those of theology, law, and medicine and primarily prepared their students to become servants of the autocratic Prussian state, whose instruments they were. These faculties were to provide a civil servant class, a Beamtenklasse of theologians, lawyers, and physicians through whose dedication the structure of absolute Prussian state power was to be fortified. For this reason the state authorities felt it essential to control these three faculties completely and to prescribe their curricula rigidly so that the graduates could enter their chosen callings with a thorough identification with the ruling principles of the state they served. The students were certainly thoroughly imbued with the best available technical skills in order to fulfill most adequately their service functions to the state.Understandably enough, the state authorities of that time (not yet

No abstract

No abstract