This paper analyzes Kwame Anthony Appiah's 2015 New York Times article "What is the Point of College?" in which Appiah identifies two core purposes of higher education: a utilitarian purpose focused on practical skill-building and personal economic advancement, and a utopian purpose centered on values, ideals, and the cultivation of a better society. The paper summarizes both positions and then argues that the two are not merely compatible but mutually reinforcing. Drawing on examples such as the Enron scandal and the moral philosophy of J. S. Mill, the author contends that college should serve as an environment where utilitarian and utopian aims are synthesized, each informing and strengthening the other.
Kwame Anthony Appiah addresses the question "What is the point of college?" in his New York Times article of 8 September 2015. The author identifies two purposes of college, which he reduces to two descriptors: utilitarian and utopian. In other words, college has a utilitarian reason for being and a utopian reason for being. One can pursue either of these two ends by going to college — and because of that, the two purposes of college are both utilitarian and utopian.
The utilitarian point of college is for the individual student to obtain value for his or her time spent there: what the student puts in should return exponentially — like a return on investment. The student should receive or learn some skill that can benefit him or her in terms of increasing their standard of living. This is the value utility. One goes to college to learn real-life applications that can be implemented in the real world to achieve specific aims, such as earning a living.
What Appiah means by the utopian point is that one purpose of college is to learn ideals and values that can be used to help move society and civilization onto a more righteous path — one where principles and philosophies empower people to become the best that they can be. For the time invested, a knowledge or understanding of self and society is obtained that helps guide the individual in making good and right decisions about the future.
The two purposes are not necessarily mutually exclusive or necessarily complementary: they may be pursued individually, simultaneously, or exclusively — it is all up to the student and what he or she wishes to achieve, according to the author. Often there is a tension between the utopian and the utilitarian, but there need not be, as Appiah asserts.
"Ethics and utility are mutually dependent"
"Merging both purposes for complete education"
You’re 46% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.