约翰和肯喜欢大学，尤其是他们在大学里工作。尽管如此(至少为了这段插曲)，他们对大学是否有价值持怀疑态度。大学的目的是什么?它为谁服务?谁拥有并控制着它?And who evaluates whether it's done its job?

名牌大学的本科生学费很高，这让人觉得教育年轻人是这些学校的首要任务。但在许多教员和捐赠者看来，研究生水平的研究才是最重要的，尤其是在决定聘用和晋升方面。因此，目前还不清楚大学是为本科生服务，还是为研究生和教师提供支持;大学的目的似乎有两个方向。

埃切门迪在这个问题上的观点似乎化解了这种紧张关系:总的来说，大学的目标是创造、保存和传播知识。要做到这一点，研究生和教师的研究和本科教育一样重要，所以大学既要为本科生服务，也要为教师和研究生提供支持。他认为，随着知识边界的扩张和收缩，大学需要通过增加或减少研究机构、图书馆和教学部门来重塑自身。

Ken is skeptical that universities serve civilization at large, however, beyond students and faculty. For he doesn't see how society's concrete needs---for food, medicine, shelter, etc.---can be met by the university's doings. But Etchemendy thinks Ken is wrong: Universities have been involved in designing many technologies---from microwave ovens to the Internet and magnetic resonance imaging---that have profoundly impacted the lives of laypeople. Without technological miracles from universities, he suspects, civilization would wither.

Are universities meant to transmit practical wisdom, in addition to knowledge of facts and theories? In Etchemendy's view, wisdom comes after one gains both knowledge and life experience. Universities can offer both, though most focus more on the former (and a few more on the latter). Usually, then, universities provide some ingredients for wisdom, without mixing them up or adding the final touches.

If the mission of universities is to create, preserve, and transmit knowledge, where do college sports fit in? Does nurturing pre-professional athletic teams dilute or corrupt that mission? Etchemendy points out that a university can in good conscience support activities that aren't strictly part of its mission, as long as they are ancillary to the mission. And sports---like it or not---are ancillary for at least two reasons: They both develop the non-intellectual side of students (which Etchemendy views as equally important as its complement), and they generate prestige and revenue that might filter down to researchers.

终身教职制度的目的是什么?在这种制度下，无论教师采纳何种有争议的观点，他们都保证不会被解雇。它的存在是否使大学有责任成为社会的监督者和告密者?肯认为不是。他说，每个教员可以选择批评或支持他们想要的任何事业，但大学本身不需要(也许不应该)偏袒任何一方。尽管如此，他认为，个人的能力可以很好地恢复普遍存在于整个社会的令人痛苦的枯燥的话语状态。John和Etchemendy认为，这可以通过更好地宣传教师们已经在学术环境中表达的观点来实现。

• Roving Philosophical Report(seek to 6:46): Traditionally, a university is a place made of bricks and mortar and filled with human bodies. But online schools like the University of Phoenix, which is more than 30 years old and serves more than 300,000 students, challenge that notion. Zoe Corneli talks to Douglas Threet, Area Chair for Management and Finance at the University's offices in San Jose, CA. The purpose of universities in general, Threet thinks, is to create happier futures and better citizens by supporting learning, teaching, research, and practical training. That the University of Phoenix stresses the final element of that list reflects, in Threet's view, its commitment to helping people who have reached a stage in life where a traditional bricks-and-mortar college education is not an option---for example, individuals with nascent families and demanding work schedules.

• 60-Second Philosopher(seek to 50:16): Do universities create knowledge for the sake of culture at large, or do they harvest information for the profit of private companies? Ian Schoales traces the development of the lucrative boredat___.com franchise, which began in a library at Columbia University and will, perhaps, end up pouring funds into the school's endowment.