Scientific worldviews, religious minds

Abstract

Throughout most of the history of science, academic practice has been regarded as a fundamentally rational process. But is it really that rational? When the first universities in Europe were founded in the twelfth century, a ceremony resembling the modern doctoral defenses was quickly established. The candidate was presented with two opponents, who examined the strengths and weaknesses of his dissertation. Apart from the removal of a somewhat barbarian precaution – the candidate’s oath included a promise not to try and kill the opponents should he fail – the structure of the doctoral defenses has not changed significantly to this day. The ceremonial structure closely resembles that of religious rites of passage. The traditionalist nature of the doctoral defence not only illustrates that the university is a conservative institution, but also how it is interrelated with the world of symbols, rituals and ceremonies (Krogh et al. 2003). What are the most salient symbols of academia today? This question is too complex to be answered in a few sentences, but there seems to us to be a strong inclination in our time towards what Fisher called the “symbols of achievement” (Fisher in Jegerstedt 2011). Success is primarily measured by the number of publications and prizes, funding and international rankings, which seem to be valued over actual achievement. This illustrates how rituals and symbols remain at the core of modern life and are defining aspects of academia – the institution which is the actual symbol of the rationalization and the secularization of Western societies (Weber).