This book presents an alternative ethic of higher education and considers policy choices of higher education resulting from this ethic. This alternative ethic asserts that higher education constitutes a primary social means for the forming of selves capable of participating widely and effectively in the affairs of a modern complex world. This ethic is contrasted to both the elitist intellectualist tradition and the contemporary pragmatic, investment based view. After an introductory chapter, chapters Two and Three reconsider the nature of self-interest in higher education as a basis upon which an alternative ethic for the conduct of that education might rest. In Chapters Four through Nine it is suggested that an alternative is possible in the nonvocational heart of a liberal, university education. Chapters Four and Five present an examination of the nature of the teacher student relationship characterizing it as cooperative competition. Chapter Six discusses general education, and Chapter Seven takes up liberal education. In Chapter Eight the alternative framework is applied to the study of literature, science, and philosophy. Chapter Nine treats the place of professional schools in the university. Chapter Ten explores the limits of the university. Chapters Eleven and Twelve respectively examine the politicization of the university and a concept of social ethnic and its relation to higher education. The final chapter examines the relative status of the individual's interests versus those of society as they pertain to the university. The text includes a section of notes and an index. (JB)