Towards the Wise University: the Third Academic Revolution

Abstract

The present era is full of forces that influence on the different forms of living and cause increasingly chaos, ambigiuity, discontinuity, changeableness, and uncertainty in the understanding of phenomena and representing solutions for living’s main problems. The scientific and technological knowledge have been reached to the highest level ever before; so that increasingly speed progress in the new technologies liberated the human from exhausting physical labor, and maked his life easier and richer; but instead of rest and comfortableness living, it introduce a grave restlessness and psychological pressure into his life and make him a slave to this technology. Further, relevant problems to the development, economic corruption, environment destruction, using mass destruction weapons, political conflicts in national and international levels, injustice, extremism, democratization, governance, and other individual, organizational, social, and global problems needs something more than existing knowledge in the world. Wisdom, beyond scientific and technological knowledge, is a concept that is able to create balance between instrumental rationality and value rationality, to pay attention to the values and ethics, to resolve living problems, to serve the common good, and to provide a better living for human. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to represent the concept of “Wise University” and to explain the crucial role and mission of the new generation of universities, higher education institutions, and other scientific, educational, and research institutions in the resolving of individual and social problems of human living.

Keywords

• wise university
• wisdom
• scientific knowledge
• technology
• the new mission of universities