Chapter 284: Academia (1)
The universities of this era are, uh…
Dens of thugs.
Yes. That feeling seems closer than “halls of learning.” No, why on earth would they guarantee students the right to beg? I could understand establishing extraterritoriality as simply dieval.
…No.
Perhaps I’m being too prejudiced.
Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and so on.
Aren’t they all people who received university education in this era and beca excellent scholars?
And their achievents were published, exchanged, and spread to sohow influence many people, so in the end, universities must have fulfilled their role. It’s not like Newton printed his writings himself and distributed pamphlets.
Feeling the need to investigate more objectively, I asked the exchange students again.
“Everyone does as they please. Many don’t even attend lectures properly because they’re going to prison…”
“I had a hard ti continuously learning Latin grammar that I wasn’t interested in. Even the professors there were less skilled at treating patients than I was.”
“I tried to major in law. Although I’ve returned like this because England beca chaotic midway, soday I want to earn a doctoral degree…”
From this, I could roughly see the system.
At universities, they learn seven basic subjects: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithtic, geotry, astronomy (from the description, it seems mixed with astrology), and music. This is called the Trivium and Quadrivium.
After that, those who want more knowledge take advanced lectures on the Trivium and Quadrivium, then join the university community and qualify to beco faculty. That’s how people who teach knowledge at universities are reproduced.
That’s the Liberal Arts process and the path to earning a master’s degree.
That’s right. There are no “majors.”
A master’s degree refers to a cultured person proficient in Latin, mathematics, astronomy, music, philosophy, etc., and qualified to teach others. It doesn’t an a specialist in a specific field.
So to earn a degree in “real majors” like theology, law, or dicine, one must first study the Trivium and Quadrivium, then listen to the education from each faculty and earn a doctoral degree.
Huh.
After a master’s, it’s not a doctorate?
Doctoral degrees only exist in theology, law, and dicine?
Colleges are not single-subject universities but dormitories and student communities, and the classes there are separate from those at the university?
Sothing.
No, sothing is quite different from what I was thinking.
First of all, it was my mistake to view the universities of this era as extensions of “schools” and “educational facilities.”
The universities of this era are “guilds.” The kind of guilds that often appear when explaining the dieval period.
Could we call them intellectual guilds?
Thinking of it that way, it makes sense that they receive extraterritoriality, autonomy, begging rights… and various other privileges. Because they’re guilds.
A community of knowledge where “craftsn (professors)” gather to raise “apprentices (students)” among themselves and bestow craftsn qualifications (master’s and doctoral degrees) among themselves.
That’s a university.
Well, since technicians and specialists in this era are typically reproduced this way, these people can’t be said to be special. Rather, from the perspective of the 17th century, where dieval traces remain quite present, it could be seen as rather ordinary.
‘But that’s not what I wanted.’
First of all, the system is quite advanced. If the pre-modern educational institution I had in mind was sothing like Sungkyunkwan, a national bureaucrat training institution, this place is at least…
Free.
The universities of this era are one of the few hubs where intellectuals gather and various knowledge accumulates.
Tokyo Imperial University of Edo and iji is often compared to universities, but wasn’t it the case that no academic research was actually done at Tokyo Imperial University? After all, Tokyo Imperial University wasn’t an institution for such purposes.
In contrast, European universities are literally free communities of knowledge.
There, they actually produce new knowledge, spread it to other universities, and various intellectuals interact through the universities.
By forming an “academia” in this way, they create opportunities for knowledge to develop and spread. That’s what universities are.
In that sense, in so ways, they are much more advanced than what I had in mind and touch upon the fundantals of modern universities.
However.
‘The knowledge that cos out is… ambiguous.’
From my perspective, there are still many problems.
I just called European universities guilds.
Then, how are guilds typically maintained?
Of course, since guilds are associations of specific occupations, the basic thing is to pass on the skills for them to make a living among themselves. Additionally, they control nearby industries to obtain funds and secure the capital to maintain themselves.
But…
What about universities?
Learning Latin grammar doesn’t produce bread.
From the beginning, there are no majors except theology, law, and dicine. That ans the purpose of universities is to cultivate “cultured people,” not professional education.
So these “cultured people” gather to form a community, create knowledge, pass it on… all good. Then how is this maintained?
Usually, of course, it’s maintained by exploiting the parents of students.
Hmm, exactly like 21st-century humanities colleges. This feels sowhat familiar.
Anyway, not everyone who cos to university is rich, and if there are students without money, they need to sohow secure tuition and textbooks, so rights like “begging rights” are guaranteed.
Because students have no money.
The sa goes for professors. As ntioned earlier, Latin grammar doesn’t bring in bread. Professors have to beco private tutors for nobles or hustle in other ways.
So it’s good that there’s a community of intellectuals.
But they’re poor.
The reason is clear.
‘It’s not an educational institution that nurtures specialists like in modern tis.’
A place where untitled noble children, or wealthy commoners, go to build connections and culture, and to gain the backing of a community that will beco a political support in the future.
That’s what European university communities are now.
Modern universities, even if not in engineering fields, respond to society’s demands in so way.
Whether humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences, fields that seem to have no direct relevance at first glance clearly contribute to society upon closer examination.
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