The University, Metrics, and the Good Life

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that the best of all lives is the life of contemplation. Outside of the cash nexus, indeed separate from any societal function, contemplation is the godlike activity of thought thinking itself. With the decline of monastic life, the academy might be thought of as the last bastion of reflection. But whether Aristotle would find much contemplation there today is doubtful. Driven by economic crisis and the need for greater and greater output, academic life is increasingly characterized by impatience and anxiety. In his or her daily activities, the contemporary academic is more likely to be found with shoulders bent over a keyboard, answering a daily avalanche of email, and hurrying from teaching to personnel meetings to the pursuit of grants.