A
Larger Sense of Purpose: Higher Education and Society.
Harold T. Shapiro. Prince-ton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2005. Pp. 202. $24.95, cloth. ISBN: 0-691-12363-2.
TEL: 609-258-5714 • FAX: 609-258-1335
Universities were once largely insular institutions whose purview extended
no further than the campus gates, but they’re not anymore. Today’s
universities have evolved into multifaceted organizations with complex connections
to government, business, and the community.
With these developing relationships, how should universities address the increasing
commercialization not only of intercollegiate sports, but also of education
and research? What are the nature and objectives of liberal education? What
are the university’s responsibilities for the moral education of students?
Who should protect the soul of the university from commercialization?
Harold Shapiro, former president of Princeton University and the University
of Michigan, and Chairman of the National Bio-ethics Advisory Commission under
President Clinton, draws from his 25 years of experience leading major research
universities to explore the role the modern university should play as an ethical
force and societal steward.
The book begins with an expanded history of the modern research institution,
followed by essays on ethics, the academic curriculum, the differences between
private and public higher education, the future of intellectual property rights,
and the changing relationship between the nation’s universities and
the for-profit sector.
Shapiro calls for universities to be more accountable morally as well as academically.
He urges scientists not only to educate others about the potential and limitations
of science, but also to acknowledge the public’s distress over the challenges
presented by the very success of the scientific enterprise.
He advocates for a more intimate connection between professional training
and the liberal arts, in the hope that future doctors, lawyers, and business
executives will be educated in ethics and the social sciences as well as they
are in anatomy, torts, and leveraged buyouts.
Click below to buy this book
