The Real University

“The real University, he said, has no specific location. It owns no property,

pays no salaries and receives no material dues. The real University is a state

of mind. It is that great heritage of rational thought that has been brought

down to us through the centuries and which does not exist at any specific

location. It's a state of mind which is regenerated throughout the centuries

by a body of people who traditionally carry the title of professor, but even

that title is not part of the real University. The real University is nothing

less than the continuing body of reason itself.

 

In addition to this state of mind, “reason," there's a legal entity which

is unfortunately called by the same name but which is quite another thing.

This is a nonprofit corporation, a branch of the state with a specific address.

It owns property, is capable of paying salaries, of receiving money and of

responding to legislative pressures in the process.

 

But this second university, the legal corporation, cannot teach, does not

generate new knowledge or evaluate ideas. It is not the real University at

all. It is just a church building, the setting, the location at which conditions

have been made favorable for the real church to exist.

 

Confusion continually occurs in people who fail to see this difference,

he said, and think that control of the church buildings implies control of

the church. They see professors as employees of the second university who

should abandon reason when told to and take orders with no backtalk, the

same way employees do in other corporations.

They see the second university, but fail to see the first.”

-Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance