The next meeting of the Philosophy Society will be held at the Erin Serracino Inglott Hall on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Professor Kenneth Wain will open the discussion. Professor Paul Standish will then speak about an economy of higher education.

In his paper, Professor Standish draws a distinction between ways of thinking and acting, and hence of policy and practice in higher education, in terms of different kinds of economy: economies of exchange and economies of excess.

Crucial features of economies of exchange are outlined and their presence in prevailing conceptions of teaching and learning is illustrated. These are contrasted with other possible forms of practice, which in turn bring to light the nature of an economy of excess. In more philosophical terms, and to expand on the picture, economies of excess are elaborated with reference, first, to the understanding of alterity in the work of Emmanuel Levinas and, second, to the idea of Dionysian intensity that is to be found in Nietzsche.

In the light of critical comment on some current directions in policy and practice, the implications of these ways of thinking for the administrator, the teacher and the student in higher education are explored.

Professor Standish, who lectures at the University of Sheffield, UK, is regarded as one of the leading philosophers of education in the Anglo-Saxon world, having contributed papers to a variety of scholarly journals and a number of chapters to books in the field. He is also editor of the Journal of Philosophy of Education.