Can the University Survive (its) Nihilism?

In this essay, I describe four symptoms of what John M. Ellis refers to as “the breakdown of higher education”: i) lack of diversity of opinion, ii) intolerance, iii) subversion of academic standards, and iv) politicization. I will argue that this situation is unlikely to be a transitory phenomenon, namely one more wave of illiberalism. Instead, I believe it is the outcome of a deep cultural change, perhaps a manifestation of what Del Noce describes as the crisis of modernity.