评罗伯特·M·赫钦斯的《美国高等教育》——兼论大学的批判功能
Review of Robert Maynard Hutchins' The American Higher Education and a Passing Comment on University's Critical Function
Abstract
罗伯特·M·赫钦斯是20世纪中叶美国著名的高等教育思想家和改革家。他在《美国高等教育》中用优美且严密的文字批判了当时美国高等教育存在的问题。他呼吁大学的批判功能,强调大学是独立思想或批判中心,教授和学生通过交流和沟通来发挥批判功能,并认为通过名著提供的经验有助于形成学生的鉴赏和批判标准。大学的批判功能不论是从历史还是现实的角度上看,都是不可忽视的。 Robert Hutchins is a renowned American higher education thinker and reformer in the mid-20th century.He eloquently and elegantly criticizes the then-situation in American higher education in his book The American Higher Education,appealing to the university's critical function.He stresses that the university is the center of independent thought or critical ideas,that professors and students exert their critical function through communication,and that the experience offered in classics can shape students' standards of appreciation and criticism.University's critical function is never ignorable whether historically or realistically.