Given what I have said so far about education in the West, specifically about ancient and medieval forms of higher education as they relate to instrumentality and specialization, my treatment of modern forms of higher education needs to be further explored and expanded upon. Here I will continue the general focus on higher education and concerns of instrumentality and specialization, but with an exclusive focus on the modern epoch.
In the early modern period, particularly in the work of Francis Bacon, we see a clear shift from the theoretical systems of medieval scholasticism toward a more practical this-world orientation.1 Inductive reasoning came to replace the ancient and medieval methods of deduction in the newly burgeoning scientific psyche. The shifts in philosophical thought were contemporaneous with the seeds of the Scientific Revolution, which began with the work of Nicolaus Copernicus. The older Ptolemaic (or geocentric) model of the solar system was replaced by the more correct heliocentric system, which put the Earth in motion and the Sun at the center of the universe.2 This was ultimately demonstrated by Galileo, building upon the work of Copernicus. Galileo’s new science of mechanics, of matter in motion, brought the notions of material and efficient causation to the fore. At the same time, it displaced the Aristotelian concepts of substance and teleology.3 Questions of “how” came to dominate questions of “what” and “why”. It was the ideas contained in Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, however, that cemented the foundations of modern science as we know it.4 The Scientific Revolution, coupled with the ideas developed during the Enlightenment, firmly placed the conceptual focus on man’s lot in this world, and the progress to be made therein.
The development of the modern world can be considered from the perspective of many different spheres existing across time. The Religious, the Political, the Scientific, the Economic, the Educational, et al. Its birth is a product of the overlapping and interconnectedness of these and other aspects of the human world. I have spoken before of the impact of the printing press (here and here), specifically within the context of the Protestant Reformation. The advent of printing dramatically increased the rate of the exchange of information, and this, in turn, had a great effect on changes occurring within the various spheres. Increases in the ability of people to communicate led to an increased rate of change in general, increases in literacy and education, and the spreading of ideas. This led to further developments. The Reformation, for instance, may be first and center in terms of its general impact on Europe. In the Political sphere, the rise of liberalism. In the Scientific sphere, the rise of modern science and the developments of technology.5 In the Economic, increases in trade, bookkeeping, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of capitalism. In the Educational, increases in literacy and general understanding, the formation of an educated class, and so on. Taken together, these changes led not only to wide-ranging increases in specialization but also to the emergence of the idea of social progress.6
Today, the Economic sphere and the world of total work permeates the lives of almost everyone.7 In other words, our lives are permeated by instrumentality. Individuals may work in a given sphere, but the very fact that what they do has become wedded to securing an income envelops it within the Economic. Rare indeed is the profession left untouched by the tentacles of instrumentality in the modern contemporary world. This is closely bound up with higher education today, as use-value and instrumentality have come to pervade education in the same way they have come to pervade our everyday lives. In practice, the purpose of education is no longer to get an education, but to use an education to get an income.8 Young adults are encouraged to pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, not only to “drive our nation’s innovation and competitiveness by generating new ideas, new companies and new industries”, but also because “STEM degree holders enjoy higher earnings, regardless of whether they work in STEM or non-STEM occupations.”9 This just is the American formula to get good grades in order to get into a good school in order to get a good job in order to secure a high income, and it is reinforced by an ethics of consumption and consumer society. Indeed, higher education itself has become a consumer commodity, as witnessed not merely by the increasing costs of higher education in the United States, but also the status associated with certain elite institutions.10
As we have seen, in the ancient and medieval world much of higher learning was dedicated to non-instrumental goods, such as philosophy and theology, as ends in themselves.11 With the rise of modernity, we see a shift toward a more this-worldly orientation, toward the practical and utilitarian. In the early modern period, Francis Bacon’s disdain for Aristotelian philosophy is mirrored by the disdain for the theoretical that Isocrates held against Plato nearly 2,000 years earlier. The useless, which was once bound up with ideas of intrinsic goodness, in the modern period comes to connote the opposite. In some ways, it is science itself that has retained hues of the non-instrumental. The purpose or goal of modern science is a comprehensive understanding of reality, and this is very much an end in itself.12 The alleged corruption of science–by politics, or broader still, by money–is more or less a battle between instrumental and non-instrumental stances within the (folk, non-formal) philosophy of science.13 Although science does not operate independently of philosophical presuppositions, it is ironic that in this way it clearly embodies the disinterested pursuit of knowledge–something it shares with classical philosophy. In the end, it may be Plato and Aristotle, and not Francis Bacon, who smiles after all.
Notes:
1. See Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, and see also René Descartes, Discourse on Method.
2. Nicolaus Copernicus’s, On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres, was published in 1543.
3. See Edwin A. Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science. It is important to emphasize that Aristotle’s notions of substantial and final causation (teleology) were displaced as a matter of historical record. In other words the displacement occurred in the minds of the advocates of modern science at the time. i.e., the material and efficient were valued, the substantial and final ignored. Whether Aristotle’s notions of substantial and final causation can be refuted by modern science, however, is a separate question, which will perhaps be explored in the future.
4. For an accessible introduction to Newton’s scientifc impact, see David Berlinksi, Newton’s Gift.
5. Technology may be properly considered as a sphere of its own. Although scientific discovery often leads to developments in technology, technology also leads to scientific discoveries. The invention of the telescope is a perfect example. Technology also impacts the Economic sphere, since technological developments often have a direct connection on increases in production and the exchange of information (such as that of printing).
6. This is contrasted with the more static and fixed structure of medieval feudalism, though it should be noted that this situation itself has led to the development of new challenges. See, for example, Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom.
7. See my essay, A Sketch of the Workaday World.
8. Newman’s insight of knowledge as its own end is here perverted into the merely useful–artes serviles–to echo the words of Cicero. See John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University. See also Cicero, On Duties, Book I.
9. See U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future (PDF). I have personally seen memes appearing on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram that compare STEM and non-STEM educated individuals, casting the latter in an unfavorable light.
10. It seems that Karl Marx’s notion of commodity fetishism can in certain instances be applied to education itself. See Karl Marx, Capital.
11. Again, the study of rhetoric is there to counterbalance this. In terms of the non-instrumental, the work of Plato and Aristotle is perhaps the best examples to be found in the ancient world. The study of theology in the Middle Ages, and the development of scholasticism, are likewise instances of the non-instrumental. But the rhetoric of the Greeks and Romans becomes, by the end of the Middle Ages, law and jurisprudence (though not unconnected to its Hellenistic heritage). See Harold J. Berman, Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition.
12. Though it should be added that it is held by some that the value of science ought to be judged on the basis of its utility, as it is for Francis Bacon. Even if the goal is a comprehensive understanding of reality, the point of such an understanding is to use it. Use it for what? For social progress is one answer. But this nonetheless places a tension at the core of science, between the instrumental and non-instrumental. The disinterested pursuit of pure science is here pitted against societial pressures. Even popular writers of science, such as Richard Dawkins, adhere to an idea of science as the disinterested pursuit of understanding reality. This is evidenced by many of his interviews and debates.
13. See the work of Daniel S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science, and Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion.