Woodhouse, Howard.  “The Seduction of the Market: Whitehead, Hutchins, and the Harvard Business School.” Interchange 31, no. 2-3 (2000): 135-57.

Abstract

The paper analyzes a debate from 1936 between Alfren North Whitehead and Robert M. Hutchins over the role of the business universities today.  Their cotnrasting views on vocational training in the modern university underlines the ways in which the logics of education and the market differ.  I argue that Whitehead's support for the business school stemmed from a belief in private corporations fulfilling the same role as the Catholic Church in defending the "great liberty" of medieval universities.  This belief is contradicted by other statements of his that business corporations destroy the very craft required for academic work.  Finally, I suggest ways in which both authors might respond to a current situations at my own university where applied research for business is subsidized with millions of dollars from the base budget.  While both would have been opposed to the threat this poses to university autonomy, Hutchins' critique of the logic of the market makes his strongest position.