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Academics No Longer Think: How the Neoliberalization Of ACADEMICS NO LONGER THINK: HOW THE NEOLIBERALIZATION OF ACADEMIA LEADS TO THOUGHTLESSNESS by JUSTIN MICAH PACK A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Philosophy and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2015 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Justin Micah Pack Title: Academics No Longer Think: How the Neoliberalization of Academia Leads to Thoughtlessness This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Philosophy by: Bonnie Mann Chairperson Alejandro Vallega Core Member Rocío Zambrana Core Member Jerry Roziek Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2015 ii © 2015 Justin Micah Pack iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Justin Micah Pack Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy December 2015 Title: Academics No Longer Think: How the Neoliberalization of Academia Leads to Thoughtlessness In my dissertation, I argue that the neoliberalization of higher education results in the university becoming less and less a place of wonder, self-cultivation and thinking and instead more and more a place to specialize, strategize and produce. This is a result of the volatile infusion and mixing of the logic of calculative rationality at work in consumer capitalism with the logic of scientific instrumental rationality already hegemonic in academia. This adds to the demands of the academic world of production the demands of the world of consumption. Now the academic (and also the student) is interpellated not only as a producer of knowledge but also as an object of consumption (to be consumed by others). These new pressures, previously kept at a distance from academia, explosively accelerate the already rapid process of rationalization of which science is already a key part and increasingly structure higher education as a field of strategic action in which students no longer have the time to think and to develop good judgment. I worry this undermines the opportunity for students to develop into good citizens that can truly think critically and judge carefully. Thinking and judgment are, according to Arendt, the only things that can save us if the powerful machines of science or capitalism begin to work in ways they should not. Arendt saw Nazi Germany use the iv newest science and the best economic management to systematically kill six million Jews. She saw the disturbing inability of the populace and the intellectuals to capably resist the Nazi machine once it got rolling. I argue than unless checked, neoliberalization threatens to turn the university into a place that discourages thinking and the development of judgment in favor of hyperspecialization and strategic action. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Justin Micah Pack GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Brigham Young University, Provo DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Philosophy, 2015, University of Oregon Master of Arts, Philosophy, 2012, University of Oregon Master of Science, Sociology, 2009, Brigham Young University Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy, 2005, Brigham Young University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Continental Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Ethics, Marginalized Philosophical Traditions PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2010-2015 Adjunct Professor, Brigham Young University, 2008-2009 Adjunct Professor, Utah Valley University, 2008. 2010 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Paideia Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Oregon, 2012 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2010-2015 vi PUBLICATIONS: Pack, Justin. “Too Many Books on the Dance Floor: Borges, Arendt and Ortega y Gasset on the Onslaught of Books.” International Journal of the Book . Forthcoming. Pack, Justin. Hammering Square Pegs into Round Holes: International Development and the Flawed Ontological Assumptions of Modernity . Brigham Young University. Department of Sociology, 2009. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank Anna for everything and the many wonderful conversations. Thanks Gray and Zaybay. I will always be grateful to Ralph. Thank you to Bonnie, Alejandro and the other members of the philosophy department who have supported me. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Academics No Longer Think ................................................................................. 1 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 20 II. THE RISE OF THE MODERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY ............................... 22 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 22 The Rise of the Research University ..................................................................... 28 Logic 1: Early 19 th Century Positivism and Science as the Engine of the Bright New Future............................................................................................................. 33 Logic 1: Late 19 th Century Positivism as the Internal Logic of the University ..... 37 Logic 2: The Spirit of Capitalism .......................................................................... 43 Logic 3: The Disciplinary Society ......................................................................... 48 Instrumental Rationality and High Modern Aesthetics: Two Commonalities Between Science, Capitalism and the Disciplinary Projects of Modernity ........... 54 Instrumental Rationality..................................................................................... 54 The High Modern Aesthetic............................................................................... 58 The German Backlash ............................................................................................ 62 Thoughtlessness ..................................................................................................... 65 Summary and Conclusions .................................................................................... 71 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 72 III. HANNAH ARENDT ON THINKING, COGNITION, AND JUDGMENT ........ 78 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 78 ix Chapter Page Section 1: Thoughtless Cognition .......................................................................... 79 Thinking and Cognition ................................................................................... 73 The Greek World Plato Does Not Like............................................................ 83 Plato’s Quest for Knowledge (Truth) .............................................................. 86 The Dominion of Knowledge (Truth) .............................................................. 89 Section 2: The Degeneration of Action into Strategic Action .............................. 96 Action ............................................................................................................ 96 Strategic Action ............................................................................................... 97 Logics and Games as Blob ............................................................................... 101 Eichmann as the Paradigm of Thoughtless and Strategic Action .................... 104 Section 3: The Power of Thinking ........................................................................ 109 Thinking: The Anti-Blob ................................................................................. 109 Unintended Consequence of Thinking #1: The Two-in-One .......................... 113 Unintended Consequence of Thinking #2: Judgment ...................................... 117 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 121 Notes .............................................................................................................. 122 IV. THE HEGEMONY OF SCIENCE ........................................................................ 127 Introduction: Welcome to Academia ..................................................................... 127 Institutionalized Science ........................................................................................ 131 Playing Games ....................................................................................................... 132 Winning the Games Academics Play: The Necessity of Strategy ......................... 140 1. Normal Science as Puzzle Solving .................................................................... 146 x Chapter Page 2. Method and the Repression of Judgment ........................................................... 152 3. The Quantified Cosmos ..................................................................................... 160 4. The Spiritual Foundations of the Positivist Academic Cosmos ........................ 162 When Science Doesn’t Work: Killing Them Softly with Occam’s Razor ............ 166 When Science Works Too Well: The Danger of Technocracy .............................
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