The Human Nature of a University

By Robert F. Goheen

This is a collection of excerpts from the public addresses of Robert F. Goheen during his twelve years as President of Princeton University. The emphasis is on the people whose responsibility it is to promote and defend the principles underlying the modern American university-students, faculty, administrators, trustees, alumni. Several fundamental themes emerge the theme of individual responsibility, and the ever-present need to join rational intelligence with moral commitment, for example. Dr. Goheen sees the university as a continuing institution with long range goals, responding conservatively (in its best sense) to the human needs of the times. He seeks to define its institutional relationships in the context of the university's tasks in educ1tion and research, which must be understood and kept in balance if universities are to serve their functions effectively. Originally published in 1969. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691093482
• ISBN13: 9780691093482
• Release Date: December 1969
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding book marred by one terrible passage

Goheen shows what is to my mind a true understanding of the nature of the university. He writes, " I submit a basic committment to the life of the mind most properly marks the university. It does not seek victories;it does not work for profits;its production is not measurable. Its truest goals are not precise targets, but high ideals- the enrichment of the minds and lives of its students, the advancement of knowledge, the increase of understanding among men, and the unending search for truth." He speaks of the 'press for truth' which is at the heart of the university endeavor. And points out that universities foster ' the right to think otherwise'. Goheen writes of four basic tensions present in the university world: Detachment and Involvement, Conservation and Innovation, Teaching and Research, Mind and Spirit. He sees the heart of the university as the liberal arts and sciences questing for the truth. I enjoyed this book greatly especially as it defines an ideal which I have been troubled in recent years to see violated . 'Political correctness' has in places become a 'dogma' and in certain areas of the University such as Middle Eastern Studies there has become a propagandizing which has showed contempt for free inquiry and objective scholarship. The University to be true to itself must be an institution which is continually striving for Truth- is open to evidence- to change and to the many contradictory realities which our world yields. I very much enjoyed this book , except for one place in which it violates it owns ideals. In this he talks about Genocide having become 'the favorite crime of our century' Here he lists a number of conflicts without distinguishing those in which real genocide is involved.He also totally ignores the murderous actions of the Russians in the Gulag, and Maos murder of tens of millions of his own Chinese. He does not specify the unique horror of Nazi Germany whose aim was to murder every Jew on earth. Here I would say he violates his own ideal of pursuing the truth, and defining it properly.