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D. Dumitru
attainment. The first institution that should have courage is the university. To inculcate courage in its students and faculty, the university’s leaders must themselves have
courage first. And not any type of courage, but the courage driven by knowledge and
critical thinking skills and dispositions. The teleological, purposeful university must
have sustainability.
4 Conclusions
This essay proposes a view in which the university is the starting point of change
and the point zero of the implementation of the SDGs. These are far easier to pursue
than any other declarations of commitment. The paper brings together three concepts
rarely put in one place: critical thinking (CT), courage, and sustainable development,
thus proposing an original approach to the sustainability issue. The university should
assume its moral ground, a teleological humanistic role, in which sustainability is
the prime principle.
It has been argued that critical thinking nurtures courage, which is necessary for
the implementation of the SDGs, institutionally and at personal level, in everyday life.
Without a good education for critical thinking, education for sustainability suffers.
Without an education for critical thinking, courage will come short. Without a strong
university, as a pillar of society, we cannot understand and implement the SDGs.
According to Max Weber, academia is “disenchanted” from the greater purpose
and has to “let the facts speak for themselves”; it has no morals or values. The
university should exit its current state of researching in a void by taking its true place
in society: researching for the common good. Thus, the university should reassume
its Humboldtian creed and become teleological and moral. What universal good is
today more important and urgent than the Sustainable Development Goals?
Bibliography
Aquinas T (1981) Summa theologica, revised. Christian Classics, Allen, TX
Aristotle (2014) Nicomachean ethics (revised edition), vii–xxxv. In: Crisp R (ed) Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge
Bailin C, Battersby M (2016) Fostering the virtues of inquiry. Topoi 35(2):367–374. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s11245-015-9307-6
Bacon F (2008) The major works. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Barnett R (1997) Higher education: a critical business. Open University Press, Buckingham
Concina E (2019) Critical thinking methods for sustainable development. In: Leal Filho W (eds)
Encyclopedia of sustainability in higher education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/https://doi.
org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_205-1
Descartes R (1619–1628, 1998) Rules for the direction of the natural intelligence/Regulae ad
directione ingenii. Rodopi, Amsterdam-Atlanta
Dewey J (1909) 2012 How We think. Mansfield Centre, Martino Publishin, CT
D. Dumitru
attainment. The first institution that should have courage is the university. To inculcate courage in its students and faculty, the university’s leaders must themselves have
courage first. And not any type of courage, but the courage driven by knowledge and
critical thinking skills and dispositions. The teleological, purposeful university must
have sustainability.
4 Conclusions
This essay proposes a view in which the university is the starting point of change
and the point zero of the implementation of the SDGs. These are far easier to pursue
than any other declarations of commitment. The paper brings together three concepts
rarely put in one place: critical thinking (CT), courage, and sustainable development,
thus proposing an original approach to the sustainability issue. The university should
assume its moral ground, a teleological humanistic role, in which sustainability is
the prime principle.
It has been argued that critical thinking nurtures courage, which is necessary for
the implementation of the SDGs, institutionally and at personal level, in everyday life.
Without a good education for critical thinking, education for sustainability suffers.
Without an education for critical thinking, courage will come short. Without a strong
university, as a pillar of society, we cannot understand and implement the SDGs.
According to Max Weber, academia is “disenchanted” from the greater purpose
and has to “let the facts speak for themselves”; it has no morals or values. The
university should exit its current state of researching in a void by taking its true place
in society: researching for the common good. Thus, the university should reassume
its Humboldtian creed and become teleological and moral. What universal good is
today more important and urgent than the Sustainable Development Goals?
Bibliography
Aquinas T (1981) Summa theologica, revised. Christian Classics, Allen, TX
Aristotle (2014) Nicomachean ethics (revised edition), vii–xxxv. In: Crisp R (ed) Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge
Bailin C, Battersby M (2016) Fostering the virtues of inquiry. Topoi 35(2):367–374. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s11245-015-9307-6
Bacon F (2008) The major works. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Barnett R (1997) Higher education: a critical business. Open University Press, Buckingham
Concina E (2019) Critical thinking methods for sustainable development. In: Leal Filho W (eds)
Encyclopedia of sustainability in higher education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/https://doi.
org/10.1007/978-3-319-63951-2_205-1
Descartes R (1619–1628, 1998) Rules for the direction of the natural intelligence/Regulae ad
directione ingenii. Rodopi, Amsterdam-Atlanta
Dewey J (1909) 2012 How We think. Mansfield Centre, Martino Publishin, CT