When Is Study For?

Students learn ways of thinking that relate to time differently. This lecture takes up the challenge from critical university studies, one that in part sees students being formed as products suited to a neoliberal economy. As critique, it raises questions about the conditions that make this deformation of education possible and argues that students should be learning how to be critical of society and our current knowledge. This will provoke reflection on three ideas: knowledge, criticism, and inquiry, each of which has a claim on the goal of the university. Knowledge as such points to the past, to what traditions teach and to what is already known. Criticism points to a present in which knowledge is submitted to reflection and questioning. Inquiry is about what we seek to know, but do not yet know. The logic of inquiry will emerge in this lecture as the focal point for students in our research universities, and will ground a proposal for research-intensive undergraduate education and the goal of social exchange research.