Universitas?

Nexus Library, volume IX, bilingual edition, translation Hein Groen en Gijs Went

You can find the full lecture Universitas? by George Steiner in the third edition in the Cultura Animi series, Becoming Human Is an Art. Find out more about this publication here.

In our times, there are still educational institutions which call themselves universities. But do they still have a claim to universitas, the all-encompassing ideal of knowledge which the West inherited from Athens and Rome? In an unequalled indictment of the spirit of our times, George Steiner, world-renowned literary scholar and cultural critic, lectures modern universities. His criticism contains an exhortation to us all.