ABSTRACT
American academic life is beset by the paradoxical implication of good in evil. Indeed it is the dialectic that renders academic malpractice so troubling. The academy is an institution whose essence is paradox—so much a part of the secular world, a world in which day-to-day life is infused with the values of utilitarian exchange, yet almost sacred in its professed rejection of these values. Modern academics, however, either by choice or by necessity are not likely to relinquish conventional aspirations and activities. A commitment to academic freedom, moreover, interdicts what would otherwise be normal curiosity about the work-related behavior of one’s colleagues and so justifies inaction in the name of uncensurable obliviousness. A number of books, reports, and articles on the academic condition have appeared. Some have been intended to stimulate curricular reforms on American campuses, arguing that the neglect of the liberal arts in most existing curriculums is an educational error in need of correction.
