Self–Education and University

Abstract

In an attempt to articulate the link between the “ideas” of university and self­education, the authors of this paper firstly set forth the classical understanding of education that precedes the conception of self­education. The second part deals with Nietzsche’s rigorous under­ standing of self­education as the most consequent and most far­reaching intervention in the concept of education so far. The third part is exploring the example of Derrida’s wavering in regard to university activity and efficacity and signals the modern “antinomies” of legiti­mising its status. It is concluded that not only exterior challenges, but also the paradoxical tasks a university sets for itself, appertain to the very constitution of the university model which readily relied on the tradition of self­education, and that the relation between the vi­sions of university and self­education, is not devoid of intrinsic tensions, though it is often thought of these as mutually underpinning.