Battle for the Enlightenment: Neoliberalism, Critical Theory and the role of Circumvential Education in Fostering a New Phase of the Enlightenment

Higher education is one of the last democratic institutions in society and it is currently under attack by advocates of neo-liberalism. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how this "battle" can be framed as a battle over the direction of the Enlightenment. Critical Theory and neoliberalism both emerged from academia in response to historical conditions, but each school drew its inspiration from the same source, the promises of the Enlightenment. It is my ultimate hope that framing critical theory and neoliberalism in a battle for the Enlightenment will shed light on the dialectal heritage of present day higher education as well as its dialectical capabilities. Finally, to utilize the dialectal capability of higher education, a new critical pedagogy is examined, that of circumvential education, which seeks to circumvent and dialectically surpass the neo-liberal paradigm.