First Things RSS Feed - Edward Tingley https://www.firstthings.com/author/edward-tingley en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:50:48 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/edward-tingley 60 Gadamer & the Light of the Word https://www.firstthings.com/article/2004/01/gadamer-the-light-of-the-word https://www.firstthings.com/article/2004/01/gadamer-the-light-of-the-word Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0500 Hans-Georg Gadamer: A Biography
by jean grondin
translated by woel weinsheimer
yale university press, 512 pages, $35

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]]> Knowledge for the Sake of Knowledge https://www.firstthings.com/article/2002/01/knowledge-for-the-sake-of-knowledge https://www.firstthings.com/article/2002/01/knowledge-for-the-sake-of-knowledge Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 -0500 In the unforgettable Franny and Zooey , J.D. Salinger’s wearied heroine, recovering from some kind of spiritual crisis, mulls unhappily over her college experience.

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]]> Technicians of Learning https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/08/technicians-of-learning https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/08/technicians-of-learning Tue, 01 Aug 2000 00:00:00 -0400 Modern institutions talk about themselves. When a corporation refashions itself—undergoes a complete makeover not merely to look different, but to play an entirely different role—this revolution is fundamentally a matter of talk. Such a transformation took place in the university in the nineteenth century. It took place with much announcing and promising, and because the culture was ready for a new university serving entirely new purposes in line with the whole new drive of the world now dawning, this explaining was just the thing. In fact it was designed to convince. Today, there are people who look upon our universities as splendid and steadily improving accomplishments, while others look at the reams of readerless studies that fill academic journals, the bandwagon thinking that facilitates publication, and the new-new-thing mentality that keeps the syllabus almost as changeable as the fall TV lineup, and see a naked, destitute joke. The first crowd, who are in the majority, do not think there is any interesting tale to tell about the university in the nineteenth century, other than as the rise to today. But they ignore a question that the second group sees as pivotal: What is an educated person? The first crowd is increasingly concerned with the protection of funding, accreditation criteria, the academic/administration relationship, the corrections and revisions and inclusions and disposals recommended to make the university more inclusive, more diverse, less archaic. They assume there is no need to answer our question, because it has already been answered: education just is what the university does.

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