HOW THE NEOLIBERALIZATION OF ACADEMIA LEADS TO THOUGHTLESSNESS by JUSTIN

271 Pages·2015·1.13 MB·English

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ACADEMICS NO LONGER THINK: HOW THE NEOLIBERALIZATION OF
ACADEMIA LEADS TO THOUGHTLESSNESS

by

JUSTIN MICAH PACK

A DISSERTATION

Presented to the Department of Philosophy
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

December 2015
DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE

Student: Justin Micah Pack

Title: Academics No Longer Think: How the Neoliberalization of Academia Leads to
Thoughtlessness

This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Philosophy by:

Bonnie Mann Chairperson
Alejandro Vallega Core Member
Rocío Zambrana Core Member
Jerry Roziek Institutional Representative

and

Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School

Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School.

Degree awarded December 2015
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© 2015 Justin Micah Pack

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DISSERTATION ABSTRACT

Justin Micah Pack

Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Philosophy

December 2015

Title: Academics No Longer Think: How the Neoliberalization of Academia Leads to
Thoughtlessness

In my dissertation, I argue that the neoliberalization of higher education results in
the university becoming less and less a place of wonder, self-cultivation and thinking and
instead more and more a place to specialize, strategize and produce. This is a result of the
volatile infusion and mixing of the logic of calculative rationality at work in consumer
capitalism with the logic of scientific instrumental rationality already hegemonic in
academia. This adds to the demands of the academic world of production the demands of
the world of consumption. Now the academic (and also the student) is interpellated not
only as a producer of knowledge but also as an object of consumption (to be consumed
by others). These new pressures, previously kept at a distance from academia,
explosively accelerate the already rapid process of rationalization of which science is
already a key part and increasingly structure higher education as a field of strategic action
in which students no longer have the time to think and to develop good judgment.
I worry this undermines the opportunity for students to develop into good citizens
that can truly think critically and judge carefully. Thinking and judgment are, according
to Arendt, the only things that can save us if the powerful machines of science or
capitalism begin to work in ways they should not. Arendt saw Nazi Germany use the
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newest science and the best economic management to systematically kill six million
Jews. She saw the disturbing inability of the populace and the intellectuals to capably
resist the Nazi machine once it got rolling. I argue than unless checked, neoliberalization
threatens to turn the university into a place that discourages thinking and the development
of judgment in favor of hyperspecialization and strategic action.
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CURRICULUM VITAE

NAME OF AUTHOR: Justin Micah Pack

GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED:

University of Oregon, Eugene
Brigham Young University, Provo

DEGREES AWARDED:

Doctor of Philosophy, Philosophy, 2015, University of Oregon
Master of Arts, Philosophy, 2012, University of Oregon
Master of Science, Sociology, 2009, Brigham Young University
Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy, 2005, Brigham Young University

AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:

Continental Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of the Social
Sciences, Ethics, Marginalized Philosophical Traditions

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2010-2015

Adjunct Professor, Brigham Young University, 2008-2009

Adjunct Professor, Utah Valley University, 2008. 2010

GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS:

Paideia Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Oregon, 2012

Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2010-2015

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PUBLICATIONS:

Pack, Justin. “Too Many Books on the Dance Floor: Borges, Arendt and Ortega y Gasset
on the Onslaught of Books.” International Journal of the Book. Forthcoming.

Pack, Justin. Hammering Square Pegs into Round Holes: International Development and
the Flawed Ontological Assumptions of Modernity. Brigham Young University.
Department of Sociology, 2009.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank Anna for everything and the many wonderful conversations.
Thanks Gray and Zaybay. I will always be grateful to Ralph. Thank you to Bonnie,
Alejandro and the other members of the philosophy department who have supported me.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page

I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1
Academics No Longer Think ................................................................................. 1
Notes ...................................................................................................................... 20

II. THE RISE OF THE MODERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY ............................... 22
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 22
The Rise of the Research University ..................................................................... 28
Logic 1: Early 19th Century Positivism and Science as the Engine of the Bright
New Future............................................................................................................. 33

Logic 1: Late 19th Century Positivism as the Internal Logic of the University ..... 37
Logic 2: The Spirit of Capitalism .......................................................................... 43
Logic 3: The Disciplinary Society ......................................................................... 48
Instrumental Rationality and High Modern Aesthetics: Two Commonalities
Between Science, Capitalism and the Disciplinary Projects of Modernity ........... 54

Instrumental Rationality..................................................................................... 54
The High Modern Aesthetic............................................................................... 58
The German Backlash ............................................................................................ 62
Thoughtlessness ..................................................................................................... 65
Summary and Conclusions .................................................................................... 71
Notes ...................................................................................................................... 72
III. HANNAH ARENDT ON THINKING, COGNITION, AND JUDGMENT ........ 78
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 78
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Chapter Page
Section 1: Thoughtless Cognition .......................................................................... 79
Thinking and Cognition ................................................................................... 73
The Greek World Plato Does Not Like............................................................ 83
Plato’s Quest for Knowledge (Truth) .............................................................. 86
The Dominion of Knowledge (Truth) .............................................................. 89
Section 2: The Degeneration of Action into Strategic Action .............................. 96
Action ............................................................................................................ 96
Strategic Action ............................................................................................... 97
Logics and Games as Blob ............................................................................... 101
Eichmann as the Paradigm of Thoughtless and Strategic Action .................... 104
Section 3: The Power of Thinking ........................................................................ 109
Thinking: The Anti-Blob ................................................................................. 109
Unintended Consequence of Thinking #1: The Two-in-One .......................... 113
Unintended Consequence of Thinking #2: Judgment ...................................... 117
Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 121
Notes .............................................................................................................. 122
IV. THE HEGEMONY OF SCIENCE ........................................................................ 127
Introduction: Welcome to Academia ..................................................................... 127
Institutionalized Science ........................................................................................ 131
Playing Games ....................................................................................................... 132
Winning the Games Academics Play: The Necessity of Strategy ......................... 140
1. Normal Science as Puzzle Solving .................................................................... 146
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