Education for the Good Society: the integrity of academic practice

Abstract

This paper argues that universities need to reclaim a public and inclusive language for education that reflects the moral ends and purposes of academic practice. It claims that there are certain moral goods implicit in the activities—of research, scholarship and teaching—that comprise such practice; and it defines these goods in terms of virtuous dispositions towards truthfulness, respect and authenticity. The moral conditions of academic reconstruction necessarily include a commitment by academic practitioners to the development, in themselves and others, to these goods of learning.