Abstract
This chapter takes a critical look at universities from the perspective of the neopragmatist
philosophy of education outlined by Richard Rorty. The chapter begins with a
discussion of Rorty’s view of the ends that educational institutions properly serve in a liberal
democracy. It then considers the kind of culture that Rorty takes to be conducive to those
ends and the kind that is antithetical to them. Rorty sometimes characterizes the latter as a
culture of ‘egotism’. After describing the main aspects of such a culture, the chapter uses it
as an interpretive key for understanding the ‘dark side’ of the contemporary university. Our
thesis is that within a Rortyan, neo-pragmatist philosophy of higher education, the ends that
universities are meant to serve in a liberal democracy are vulnerable to frustration and
corruption by a culture of egotism.