I enjoyed Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s, Generous Thinking: The University and the Public Good and find it interesting how her text was utilized in several ways, the first of which being the platform through which she introduced the community of Western scholars and their civilian counterparts to the potential benefits to be had should the universities embrace the ideology of open access platforms, and open their vaults of research, unknown gems and innovative ideas that we might find. The thought of all of the effort and endless hours of mind power students and professors have put into their work only for it to be locked away in some archive, unavailable to anyone interested in the content is kind of depressing. The interactive nature of Fitzpatrick’s text is also an embodiment of the idea she is proposing, and allows and encourages conversation and engagement from people who may find their way to her page, academic or otherwise.

The other articles were pretty interesting as well, although I mentioned in the meeting that the explanation of the death of Socrates included in the public philosophy journal was not accurate by any means, but I digress. I think it’s important that we assist the cause of allowing people to have access to academic resources and materials with which they will be able to expand their minds, if they so choose. I believe it is the responsibility of the individual to apply their education toward a good cause, and ideally contribute any beneficial findings from their studies back into the community.