To put it another way, the university is generally the place where a student starts becoming seriously philosophical. In the primary and secondary grades, the student is mainly asking the question, What? In the university, the student begins asking the question, Why? If anyone is disposed to doubt that this is in fact the case, all he need do is take a long, discerning look at what is happening on university campuses all around the affluent world today. Students are clearly asking, Why? Some of them are not merely asking, they are shouting. Indeed, some of them are shouting the question so shrilly that it is somewhat unlikely they are going to be able to hear the answer. There is even a small group of raucous students who obviously are not really interested in the answer at all. Their claim is that they want to establish the right to ask any question. Or, as they themselves sometimes put it, they want to question everything. Mow, there is absolutely nothing wrong in questioning everything in a university. That is, in fact, what universities are all about. But there is no point in questioning everything --or even anything unless one sincerely wants to find the answers. Bombast and barricades and bloodshed are not the answers to the question, Why? They are not the answers to anything. They are simply a sterile and self-defeating statement of violence. It is good to argue about opinions in a classroom. That is what classrooms are for. -4-