[MD] Barfuersserkirche (The Role of the Academy)

[ian glendinning]

Dan, Arlo, Mark, et al,

Great discussion, nothing to argue with.
Dan concluded ...
"As long as they are members of the club, people will talk, share ideas, and
work together. If they are not members of the club, not so much
collaboration goes on, at least in my experience."

My impression (from 30 years in big capital intentsive industry, not
academe) is that academe is indeed much more "competitive" in direct
objective ways than any business I've seen. Formal education seems to
have some of the least enlightened institutions and practices (if I
may generalise). A pretty closed club.

Which is interesting because the whole of "Friends of Wisdom", was set
up to address the lack of "wisdom" in educational institutions and
practices. Too many seem to be of the type that Mark and Gav have
caricatured.

More specifically interesting is that the "Church of Reason" debate
came up there in the past week too, originally in a non-Pirsig
context, but several made that connection. (The Granger article went
down well there too.)

Ian