Università e conoscenze: le relazioni fruttuose

Abstract

The aim of the article is to offer a reflection on the relationship between university and knowledge. This relationship today is threatened by a drift towards economic interest and an excess of bureaucracy and evaluation, which are often taken for granted without problematizing them. In fact, the way we understand this relationship actually has significant consequences on the functioning of universities and, even more so, on the knowledge that they should build independently and freely. The article is divided into three parts. The first part identifies three main functions that the university performs with respect to knowledge (preserving, transmitting and expanding it). In the second part, some key aspects of the relationship between university and knowledge are discussed in an epistemological perspective: epistemological aspects related to the conception of knowledge and aspects related to the social structure of knowledge. Finally, the third part discusses the conditions for a communicational relationship between specialists, and between disciplines, that is able to integrate these aspects.