Aleksandra Kunce

University at the Intersection of the World and Home. Towards the Admiration of Independent Thinking

This essay discusses the important question concerning the understanding of university. The author uses anthropological and philosophical approaches to develop the interpretation of the local-worldly university. Why shall we think about university at the intersection of the world and home? The main aim of the article is to describe and interpret problems of autonomy, location, and connection with regions. The author refers to Plato, Aristotle, Herder, Humboldt, Dilthey, Nie-tzsche, Ortega y Gasset, Heidegger, Merton, Lyotard, Derrida, and Esposito. The explanation of the idea of wonder leads to the consideration of an important role of university as an independent and autonomous place in our common space. Thinking about university as an independent entity is an act of retreating from the conception of university as a centre of innovation, yielding unified and standardized thought, yet deprived of roots. University is not a realm of “the same.” If we take care of “the difference,” in particular, if we think about the Derridean term “différance”, we should affirm “the difference” in the daily practice of our universities. University is obliged to strengthen independent thinking and engaged practice, to encourage dealing with inconvenient themes and producing unprecedented narratives. We thus need to affirm our right to independence. Local orientation of university brings about the common creation of the space, which involves not only pride in one’s identity, but also a sense of the infinite, the impossible, the incomprehensible, and the strange. The local-worldly university leads us to recognition university at the intersection of the world and home.