THE CONTEMPORARY UNIVERSITY: SOME ONTOLOGICAL AND EMPIRICAL ASPECTS

Abstract

Knowing the university’s ontology is necessary to develop the social function of the university. To renew the university two elements are needed: the identity of the university and its determined action to tell the truth to the powerful. This literature-based paper analyses the university’s socio-scientific ontology to deal with its identity, thus proposing action derived from an individual and collective ethic that elaborates on the concept of the parrhesiastes. Our proposal helps to discern what should be the core of the social function of a renewed university institution for the 21st century.

Keywords

• university
• university’s socio-scientific ontology
• university’s identity
• parrhesia
• parrhesiastes
• academics’ ethics