Historical and systematic considerations relevant to an assessment of the position of the university within a differentiated society

Syn op sis In spite of all the sig nif i cant changes re corded in the his tory of the uni ver sity the mere pos si bil ity to speak about uni ver si ties in all these (vary ing) cir cum stances pre-sup poses the con stant ap peal of its un der ly ing nor ma tive struc tural prin ci ple, which surely could be re al ized in a better or worse way. Only se ri ously ob serv ing this struc tural prin ci ple can safeguard us from sur ren der ing to an ab o li tion of the in ter nal spheresov e r eignty of the uni ver sity as a so ci etal in sti tu tion by delive ring it to a-typ i cal so ci etal goals. The ideo log i cal one-sid ed ness of po sitivism should not be re placed by a plea for so ci etal rel e vance which trans forms the uni ver sity into a mere ex ten sion of some or other non-ac a demic so ci etal in sti tu tion.