The University Revolution by Eric Lybeck

Author:Eric Lybeck [Lybeck, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351017541
Google: xP4dzgEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 56358452
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-01-15T02:20:42+00:00

To observe the ‘justness’ of the code itself leads to the so-called ‘third question’, which cannot be resolved within the internal logic of the system since a third position represents an inherently relative standpoint on the second-order (Luhmann 1988b). Thus, from within an ideological system organized around science/ideology, one cannot substantively assert whether science is actually non-ideological, as the modernization theorists asserted, or whether science is ideological, as critics on the left and Christian right have asserted. Evaluation of such claims would presuppose assumption of a standpoint on one or the other side of the code. What can be observed, however, is the way in which the system operates; that is, how institutional structures and communicative discourses reflect and sustain the production of both science and ideology. For each emerges synchronically and relationally as foils for one another – just as antibodies and viruses would not exist without each other. And yet, as a social system, science in the university is engaged in constant acts of purification. How does the university system develop science internally while projecting ideology externally?

The university is a space in which the conflations between science/ideology can be parsed and debated authoritatively or ignored. The division of the disciplines – what Elias called ‘scientific establishments’ – is the core structural element enabling and conditioning this process. Indeed, this is the primary contribution of world-systems analysis to our understanding of the way divisions of knowledge support the ideological superstructure of knowledge-based capitalism. By providing the conditions for the autonomous reproduction of complexity, universities have allowed disciplines and professions to become operationally ‘closed systems’ that are nonetheless open to their environments. However, an equally important division of knowledge occurs at the boundary between the professional and philosophical disciplines. Here, as Abbott noted in his sociology of professions, professional education produces new techniques while rationalizing professional knowledge into textbooks, thereby justifying professionals’ work amongst publics and audiences.

Extending Abbott and Gouldner’s generalization from sociology, a fractal science/ideology distinction can be observed to be distributed across academic disciplines. The natural sciences, for example, are not compelled by their objects to confront ideological concerns, whereas the humanities are more likely to deal with questions of norms and values (Becher and Trowler 2001). One could conceive of this as a spectrum running from physics to comparative literature, for example, with each discipline representing a differentiation of the overall distinction. But, if we closely examine the disciplines’ internal organizations, one finds the science/ideology distinction recast within. In biology, for example, there are ‘normal’ scientific scholars and others more interested in the meanings of life (Meloni 2012). Other scientists, like Richard Dawkins, are engaged in ‘ideological services’ on behalf of atheism through the representation of ‘Science’ as Truth. The science/ideology distinction is therefore indexical, dependent on context, as in Figure 3.8. The system boundary is produced throughout the system by and through written texts, actors, practices and so on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.