The distinction between the practical and the theoretical that is often drawn in Pakistan, as if they were divorced from each other, is a false one. Indeed, archaeological research based on fossil records indicates that the ability of Homo sapiens for abstraction is what distinguished them from the Neanderthals and gave the former superior survival capability. The evidence shows that Neanderthals were also tool-using animals, but their technical change was slow because it was based on trial and error. By contrast, the Homo sapiens were able to conceive an abstract design of the tool and then fashion it accordingly: that is why their technical change was more rapid.
The ability for abstraction and use of symbols is essential to human cognition and use of symbolic means of expression, such as language. David Robson, in a recent paper in the New Scientist, says that in the history of animal species “indisputable evidence of speech conveying complex ideas comes only with the cultural sophistication and symbolism associated with Homo sapiens”.
It is not that the university does not produce “professionals” in various fields. Rather, the graduate of a world class university has developed the discipline of mind for rigorous thinking: the ability for grasping the principles or the observed regularities underlying apparently diverse phenomena. This lies at the core of originality and innovation. It is also a mode of knowing the world. Thus the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is linked essentially with developing a higher level problem solving ability.
The mathematician Alan Turing when he was a fellow at King’s College, Cambridge, did mathematics so abstract that he thought it had nothing to do with reality. Yet, when he was hired by the British ministry of defence during the Second World War, he was able to deploy his mathematics to break the coding system of the Enigma machine used by the German military for secret communications. His mathematical formulations in that period were also the basis of the modern computer.
The latest research on economic growth by Professor Aghion at Harvard University shows that long-term economic growth is a function of the depth and range of innovations in an economy. Now, the capacity for innovation, it can be argued, is based on the institutional structure wherein the university is at the apex, since it trains students to do creative and original thinking.
A university in nurturing the intellect not only produces research and trains students to do so, but also develops a humane sensibility, combining reason with the aspiration of the heart: virtue. Graduates are then able to innovate in the ‘practical’ spheres but are also able to develop their humanity to great heights that Iqbal indicated: “Develop your selfhood to such transcendent heights, that God may ask the human individual, what is your wish.”
To be able to fulfil its core function, of posing and pursuing new questions, of nurturing the intellect, freedom in a university is essential.
The ability to reason and to apprehend the beauty of transcendent truth through a loving heart, is integral to the intellect. To the extent a university nurtures these human faculties, it helps develop the economy, society and indeed human civilisation.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2012.
COMMENTS (5)
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It's when we overly emphasize one at the cost of other that the balance is disturbed. The author, being associated with a university and economics therein, believes that it should stand at the apex whereas the rest do not. No one denies the importence of elementary school, of secondary school, of college/university etc in the attainment of knowledge. However, there is serious question that when the marginal utility of persuing an abstract descipline deminishes vis-a-vis taking it word. Put another word, if one is to stay in university for 5 more years would he/she necessarily or likely be more productive as compared to someone who spent couple of years there and went onto other endeavors? Obviously the example of Steve Jobs, among several others, come to mind here.
To say that abstract thinking is somehow linearly associated with greater university time is frankly preposterous. There are too many examples that will tell us otherwise. There is a lot more that's known today about human potential than 50 years ago from the likes of emotional intelligence, the blink phenomenon (gladwell), the role of randomness (nicholous talib) etc. Rather simplistic article in my view. The article required a lot more higher level reasoning to be meaningful :)
Universities or money minting factories at the cost of youth of Pakistan. HEC shd be more assertive in getting facilities and ensure a ceiling on profit esp private universities
Reason is anathema in this country. Didn't we prove it on 21st September, 2012?
Good article. James Flynn (a famous intelligence researcher) believes that there has been year over year increase in IQ since 1900s (Ex: Average IQ in U.S. has increased annually by 3 points) due to the effect of modern organized learning that relies on the fundamentals of abstraction and classification. I would personally add creative re-combination of disparate pieces of information to the list.
Dr, Sahib for whom you are writing? HEC loves to verify law-makers degree rather than monitor the quality of education. Pakistani universities are fecund. They don't nurture scholarship. They tell us how to rot memorise like we did in secondary classes.