What are Universities for?

Universities have a hugely prestigious place in our societies. We go there to be taught how to make a living. We should also perhaps be going there to learn how to live.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam

[elainekatherinelenehan]

As a Therapist it is astonishing to me how many "educated "people come to me for help in the areas mentioned here anxiety, relationships, authenticity its revolutionary to think we could actually have centres for the study of these things WOW..what a thought.
Great little clip.

[ThePeaceableKingdom]

"Colleges are places where pebbles are polished,
and diamonds are dimmed."

Robert G. Ingersoll (look him up, people!) in correspondence to  Abraham Lincoln...

[brozoski]

As a University student, I feel like it is a place where a bunch of young people can safely gather to learn the same formulas and history lessons over and over again. In my opinion, it's a place where most young people go to because they have absolutely no idea of what to be in their lives. They all just want to earn some good money after they finish their "studies" (which they probably won't do, anyway). I'm seriously considering dropping University as I feel like I can learn more about myself and how I want to lead my life outside of my studying hours...

[maxradke]

Universities: "Oh ye$, we totally care$ about$ your future and ed$uca$ion, we are only here$ to provide a rea$onably pri$ed ed$uca$ion!"

[AdonanS]

I always thought Universities taught you how to survive, not how to live.

[mariawesley]

Let's be honest. Universities are places for privileged people to connect with other privileged people who can open doors for them. It's all about networking.

[nubymizer]

As a university student (nursing student) I have found myself reading so much literature in the massive library. I will miss that after graduation. Connect whatever you study to humanism.

[tomlahr]

How to think, not how to live, which you cannot teach to anyone. You can point in a direction, but you cannot mold people like clay.

[WeirdCrazyShortGuy]

What are universities for? Acquiring massive debt.

[daviswang]

It would be amazing for you to actually start an institution that teaches these things—a brick and mortar school of life. The demand is very high and it would provide a great benefit to the world. Start raising funds and I'm sure thousands of people will be throwing money at you based on the strength of your youtube channel alone.

[BagoGarde]

Nowadays people think the reason to go to Uni is to get a job. Many people believe being able to get trained for a job is more important than getting an "education".

We become like machines learning only one thing to repeat in a job.If the job disappears we become worthless.

[andrewhunter]

Studying subjects like history, art, philosophy, literature, art, music or psychology is as close as we can possibly come to addressing the more personal questions addressed in this video. Ultimately life is a journey of self-discovery so to be thought how to live in a classroom setting will never work. The best we can hope for is that the lessons we learn in university can be interpreted and applied to our understand our own lives. The way I see it is that we learn the way we learn to make the things we feel feel more tangible.

[AnnBoylen]

There needs to be a course on the meaningless of life and the inherent pitfalls of chasing wealth.

[Christopher_Gibbons]

I long for the days when universities existed do the pure pursuit of knowledge. Modern universities are little more than overgrown trade schools.

[SkyFoxTale]

I recommend the essay "The Idea Of A University" by John Henry Newman

[Majoofi]

At their worst, universities are holding tanks keeping people out of the workforce. Folk get to go into deep debt for this opportunity.

At their best they are places where the affluent get to make contacts and meet the right people to ensure their place in society, and therefore assure their financial success.

[TheNinerion]

wow... I don't know what to say. I am stunned, my jaw actually dropped watching this. I don't think I've ever heard anything I disagree with more! If you will, please accept my criticism. 

1) "culture replacing scripture." OK, so first of all you assert that this is the "original promise" of universities. What could possibly make you think that? As if those two were mutually exclusive things rather than two entirely separate and independent concepts. Culture and scripture have existed side by side for a long time. They still do, and they probably won't stop doing so. Even among medieval Europe there are a huge variety of different cultures that also stick to the same religion and scripture. Further, many universities are very old. Older than the enlightenment period, so the "original promise" of universities cannot have anything to do with what you said.

2) What are universities for then? Well you say that on the surface they are for teaching and training people to perform some sort of job, but on a deeper level they are about "how we should live" and such questions. To my mind, these are both completely mistaken. Universities are centres of knowledge and learning. Knowledge and learning are inherently valuable to society at large and individuals in them. A learned society is better equipped to prosper. The discovery, transmission and safe keeping of knowledge is what universities are for.

3) Here is what universities are NOT for: Universities are not for catering to your individual and frankly self-centred problems like "how can I deal with my anxiety?" or "how can I make relationships better." Those are of course important questions, but they are for the individual to deal with, not for society or universities to concern themselves with. Are you suggesting future universities toss out Plato and Aristotle and Shakespeare and Kant in favour of "let's learn about our feelings 101" ?! This is nothing but silly. 

4) In conclusion, this video seems to reveal a strong bias towards what I would call "tumbler feminist 'I want society to deal with my problems, ' anti-liberal and possibly authoritarian social justice." Granted, this might not be the case, but I'm getting a strong feeling that it is. Another indicator of this is of course that the figurines you use are a black man and a black woman. Nothing wrong with that, but it suggest that I am indeed right about the bias here. Thanks for reading, I hope someone will respond with something interesting!

[GoatOfTheWoods]

Mr Alain de Botton, you are doing a very courageous and powerful move with your journey. In a busy world, your channel is a haven of reason and finding. Thus, i whish for you to continue on speaking with our minds, minds so feeble while facing the internet, minds so shallow when questioning the innerself. All my - and our -respect, dear sir. You are not doing this in vain!

[podcasts.]

I believe that one of the best things about studying in an university is that it renders you a "professional learner". It's like that your job is to study, think and get yourself cultivated in general. So under the "excuse" that you are an university student, you actually have the time and "social justification" to contemplate on your life and improve your philosophy.

[TheZarkoc]

Am I the only one who thinks that such a systems would end up being a catastrophe especially if implemented today.