Youth, University, and Democracy Dietze, Gottfried Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Dietze, Gottfried. Youth, University, and Democracy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970. Project MUSE. doi:10.1353/book.72148. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/72148 [ Access provided at 2 Oct 2021 22:56 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. HOPKINS OPEN PUBLISHING ENCORE EDITIONS Gottfried Dietze Youth, University, and Democracy Open access edition supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press Published 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. CC BY-NC-ND ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-3684-5 (open access) ISBN-10: 1-4214-3684-1 (open access) ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-3682-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4214-3682-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-3683-8 (electronic) ISBN-10: 1-4214-3683-3 (electronic) This page supersedes the copyright page included in the original publication of this work. YOUTH UNIVERSITY AND DEMOCRACY BY THE SAME AUTHOR UBER FORMULIERUNG DER MENSCHENRECHTE ( 1956) THE FEDERALIST: A CLASSIC ON FEDERALISM AND FREE GOVERNMENT (1960) IN DEFENSE OF PROPERTY ( 1963) MAGNA CARTA AND PROPERTY (1965) AMERICA'S POLITICAL DILEMMA: FROM LIMITED TO UNLIMITED DEMOCRACY (1968) (Editor) ESSAYS ON THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION: A COMMEMORATIVE VOLUME IN HONOR OF ALPHEUS T. MASON (1964) YOUTH UNIVERSITY A.ND DEMOCRACY GOTTfRIED DIETZE THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS BAL TIM ORE AND LONDON Copyright © 1970 by The Johns Hopkins Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77-116349 International Standard Book Number 0-8018-1171-6 For R.M. who has lived by Voltaire's line umals ii faut cultiver notre jardln" CONTENTS Preface ix YOUTH, UNIVERSITY, AND DEMOCRACY: Introduction 1 1. YOUTH: Search and Confusion 7 Longing for Youth, 7 The Longing of Youth, 9 The Sorrows, Risks, and Dangers of Youth, 16 Youth, Education, and Democracy, 24 2. UNIVERSITY: Research and Clarity 33 University and Democracy, 33 University, Truth, and Reason, 36 University and Freedom, 47 University and Community, 57 3. YOUTH IN UNIVERSITY: From Confusion to Clarity 63 Youthful University, 63 Youth as a Community of Scholars, 67 Youth in the Community of Scholars, 70 Youth Without Democracy, 75 4. YOUTH AGAINST UNIVERSITY: From Clarity to Confusion 83 Youth in Democracy, 83 Youth Riots, 88 University Order, 99 Order, Riots, and Democracy, 108 DEMOCRACY, UNIVERSITY, AND YOUTH: Conclusion 113 PREFACE Written a troubled half-century after the publication of Max Weber's Science as a Profession, at a time when the University, already hav­ ing been jeopardized by youthful Communist and Fascist regimes, is being challenged by youth in democracies, the present essay describes the University as a classic institution for the advancement of learn­ ing in freedom. It shows how universities, developing along with con­ stitutionalism, have protected the freedom of the individual against authoritarian popes, kings, and popular demagogues, and urges that they continue their libertarian mission in modern democracies. That mission implies maximal benefits for the community-including youth. For only free universities can serve truth, and only advance­ ment toward the truth can satisfy the perennial quest of a traditionally confused, sad, and brave youth for clarity and bring about the kind of public good youthful idealism has always longed for. While I fear that the University, a reflection of classic liberalism, is on the way out as constitutional government is being replaced by unlimited, social democracy, and while I deplore present deviations in universities from the ideal University, I would also warn of un­ warranted denunciations of institutions which for centuries have proved useful to the progress of learning and the pursuit of happiness. G. D. Baltimore September 29, 1969 YOUTH, UNIVERSITY, AND DEMOCRACY Introduction Max Weber's Science as a Profession1 stated many truths about the good and bad aspects of academic life. A little over a hundred years after Savigny had written on the need of his time for legislation and legal science, and about half a century after Nietzsche had despaired at the failureof the Christian churches and hoped that scholars would be willing to be martyred for the truth, this now classic essay com­ mented on men's calling forscience and on the humanistic mission of science and the university. Weber's essay was timely. Originally a lecture to students at Mu­ nich, the city that was to become the home of National Socialism and the scene of a student revolt against the Hitler regime, it was ad­ dressed to an anxious, questioning youth that entertained strong doubts about traditional conceptions of science. This skepticism was not surprising. Leading in Nobel laureates and considered the most scientific of nations, Germany had just lost what was then considered the most scientific of all wars. The academic youth which had enthusiastically sacrificed itself singing the Deutsch­ landlied in the battle of Langemarck, now was decimated and faced with a bleak future. Many of them must have thought of the question Franz Marc asked in a beautiful memorial occasioned by August Macke's death in action, a fewmonths before he himself suffered the same fate: "How many terrible mutilations will this cruel war have brought upon our future culture?" As Remarque put it, here was a 1 Max Weber, Wissenschaji als Beruf (1919; reprinted in Gesammelte Aufaiitze zur Wissenschaftslehre, 2d ed.; Tiibingen, 1951). The term Wissenschajicovers study in both the sciences and the humanities. Throughout this book, "science" must be understood in both senses. 1 INTRODUCTION generation that was destroyed by the war even though it had escaped its grenades. Political and economic uncertainty intensified the plight and confusion of this uneasy,erring youth. Martin Niemoller later said that at that time he and his fellow students were so restless that they could stand lifein any one university for just one semester before moving on to another university. It was a time when the young des­ perately sought peace of mind but could not find it. After an often damned war,peace seemed to usher in the damnation of Faust. In his answer to Weber's essay, Ernst Troeltsch could well speak of "The Revolution in Science." As he pointed out,that revolution was not confined to Germany,nor was it only the result of the war. Evi­ dent in many nations since the beginning of the century,it was ac­ companied in art by the fauvesand the expressionists. It decried natu­ ralism and intellectualism, historicism, and the specialization and relativism of dry academic routine. Its tenets were simplification and concentration,liveliness and originality,an artistic spirit,a sense for symbols,liberation from convention,and devotion to the strong per­ sonality. Paradoxically,while favoring dogma and authority,aristoc­ racy and artistic nobility,the movement saw its main task in educat­ ing the masses. Before the Hitler movement had got under way, Nietzsche's Bildungsrevolutionhad turned into a striving forthe super­ humanness of all.2 Today again,the mission of science is paramount. Again,the good and bad aspects of academe are in focus,and one wonders how with their cult of the mediocre the universities can be as good as they are. Again,youth is in turmoil. After a second world war which saw scien­ tificmass killings of civilians with bombs,gas, and nuclear weapons in Auschwitz, Dresden,and Hiroshima,and after a cold war interspersed with hot wars that make plain that eternal peace,often mentioned since Kant,is as far offas ever,youth again has become skeptical towardscience and universities. Again,one hears about revolutions in science. But,with all the probings and suggestions for reform,it is hard to tell what everything is all about. In many respects,the turmoil of today's youth can be compared to that offifty years ago. Still,there are important differences. The stu­ dents have changed and the turmoil has intensified.Although the stu­ dents Weber addressed had just emerged from a cruel war,shattered in body and spirit and materially destitute,they usually were paying their own way and showing the discipline of the war experience. De­ pressed by destruction,they were eager to reconstruct;unspoiled, they 2 Ernst Troeltsch, "Die Revolution in der Wissenschaft," Schmol/ersJahrbuch (1921), XLV, 1003. 2 YOUTH, UNIVERSITY, AND DEMOCRACY refrained from violence when questioning science and universities. They were still practicing the polite forms that were generally ac­ cepted by academic citizens. Although their background was less aris­ tocratic than that of their predecessors, they were not yet the masses which are entering universities now. Reared in mass democracies, to­ day's students are the products of the affluent society. Their studies are generously subsidized by schools and governments. Materially better offthan any previous student generation, they are often spoiled and are seldom disciplined by a military experience. They often are ir­ responsible and violent. Spoiled, they are out to destroy "the estab­ lishment." So many explanations have been offered for today's student unrest that one cannot help but be struck by the versatility and imagination of commentators. New and ever more sophisticated causes forstudent behavior are constantly discovered. The surprise and first shock over riots usually is followed by an intensive and often erratic search for causes.