Knowledge and its Enemies: Towards a New Case for Higher Learning ...

inherent in the relationship between the academy and the state. Whitehead well expressed a pragmatic view of knowledge when he observed:

As noted previously, Whitehead was keenly aware that knowledge is inherently changeable, pointing to the fact that whatever the university may be, and whatever relationship it may have to the state, both are likely to change constantly. The critical variable to distinguish within this state of flux is the way in which political power interacts with knowledge. Francis Bacon's idea that scientia potentia est, or ‘knowledge is power’, is often misused to suggest that knowledge is synonymous with political power. In modern political thought, power is normally associated with the state, due to the persistence of Weber's idea that it has a monopoly on sanctioned violence, through which it obtains its monopoly over administration (Giddens 1985, 121) within a defined territory. Political power can rest upon knowledge, by critically informing judgments and preferences; in this way, political authority can gain legitimacy by applying valid knowledge.

Conversely, Foucault (1977) contended that political authority can also bring legitimacy and therefore bring power to knowledge, by embracing particular interpretations and forms of knowledge as being valid and useful. Be that as it may, political authority is not routinely engaged in, nor largely devoted to, the generation of advanced knowledge. It is much more the case that politics is in the business of consolidating power. The synthesis of useful knowledge can be useful to this purpose because it allows for legitimate claims to be made. Practical truths can inform political ideology or rhetoric and assist in daily decisions. This way of thinking prompted Jaspers to argue that generating advanced knowledge was primarily the task of the academy, but the power in the knowledge