ABSTRACT
Rationality is a thinking style that pursues truth and logically explains human activities. It consists of two parts: cognitive rationality and practical rationality. Cognitive rationality is rationality in pursuit of truth. Cognitive rationality is a thinking style that rationalizes cognitive activities, while practical rationality is rationality in pursuit of the use of truth, in that it involves rationalizing political, economic, and social activities. While practical rationality may be seen as the application of cognitive rationality, practical rationality is restricted by certain values andmay sometimes be inconsistent with or even contradictory to cognitive rationality. Higher education is committed to improving people’s cognitive abilities, but it is also responsible for satisfying social needs by delivering knowledge products. Therefore, from a rational perspective, the basic contradiction in higher education is the fact that cognitive rationality and practical rationality are at cross-purposes, where the former is the principal aspect of the contradiction and the latter is the secondary aspect of the contradiction. Such a contradiction can appear in various forms and be solved using different measures. This leads to a diverse array of alternative outlooks on higher education development. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), higher edu-
cation has chronologically served as a means of industrialization, superstructure change, economic reform, and infrastructure development (primarily through the building of the world’s top universities). The adaptation theory of higher education (hereinafter “adaptation theory”), illustrates this idea: the external contradiction of higher education (namely, the contradiction between higher education and social needs), which is believed by scholars to be its primary contradiction, is that the development of higher education must meet the basic needs of social development, or it will otherwise lose the basis for its reasonable and legitimate existence. As higher education has multiple functions, it is natural that the development of higher education must adapt in order to meet society’s economic and social development goals. If the logic of adaptation theory is to be followed, the core value of cognitive rationality will be lost; academic autonomy will not be adequately protected; and the role of universities as knowledge producers will be marginalized. If adaptation theory remains an indisputable theory or law, then this idea will fetter the mind and discourage alternative approaches to higher education development.
