This book provides a collection of papers that address issues central to university ideals: the teaching of values, the role of philosophy and literary studies in their sister disciplines (especially history), the precarious balance between research and teaching, the defense of intellectual autonomy, and the public responsibility of the university. Most of the papers were originally presented at a 1987 symposium and deal either directly or indirectly with the precepts found in Immanuel Kant's long-neglected but seminal book "The Conflict of the Faculties." In this book, written in 1798, Kant presents a schematic proposal for academic freedom and develops a juridical basis for the resolution of intra-university conflicts, and of conflicts between the university and the state, with the state serving at once as the professor's patron and censor. Papers and their authors are as follows: (1) "Mochlos; or, The Conflict of the Faculties" (Jacques Derrida); (2) "Institutions of Change: Notes on Education in the Late Eighteenth Century" (Christie McDonald); (3) "The Injured University" (Timothy Bahti); (4) "The University Founders: A Complete Revolution" (Peggy Kamuf); (5) "The Idea of a Chrestomathic University" (Robert Young); (6) "Ancillae (The Concord of the Faculties)" (John Llewelyn); (7) "The Philosophy of Electrical Science" (Alan Bass); and (8) "Canons and Metonymies: An Interview with Jacques Derrida." Notes and references accompany individual papers. (GLR)