Pelikan says that we are wary of first principles "because they can so easily serve as a highblown justification for unacceptable practices and unjust structures. He relates the forming of first principles to the act of rationalization, which has negative connotations. Pelikan cites slavery as one abomination that was rationalized during much of Western history. He says that nowadays people connect the action of rationalizing with taking a defensive posture, as if by making first principles universities are covering up shady inner workings. Another reason folks are suspicious of first principles is that they may not be concrete or even readily seen, as is the case in the athletic departments of some universities. They carry out unacceptable practices under the cover of the team mentalities where the unwritten first principle is, "Do anything to win."
The difference between information and knowledge is, "…whereas information often suggests 'no more than a collection of data or facts either discrete or integrated into a body of knowledge,' the term knowledge, 'applies not only to a body of facts gathered by study, investigation, observation, or experience but also to a body of ideas acquired by inference from such facts or accepted on good grounds as truth.'" He further clarifies by saying that some discriminating speakers of English say the telephone book contains information, while the encyclopedia contains knowledge. Concluding the paragraph containing these references, he says that information tells us the What and knowledge tells us the How.If information is the What and knowledge is the How, then Pelikan says wisdom is the Why. He uses Faust as a figure who says that no amount of learning can bestow wisdom on a person. Newman, he says, refers to it as "philosophy" and a "science of sciences". Pelikan says that wisdom transcends knowledge.
Pelikan says that the university should nurture the pursuit of knowledge but not of wisdom. Wisdom can be found in the pursuit of knowledge from great essays and other works, but it would be impossible to teach Wisdom 101 because the university is not the natural habitat of wisdom, the mind is. By cultivating and expanding the mind with knowledge, perhaps wisdom can be achieved.Knowledge and faith should be distinct from each other, but not separated. He says Theology has as much a place in the university as Astronomy. He also says that the scholarly study of faith can be controversial and even contagious and that the university is obliged to pay attention to the faith aspect of the pursuit of knowledge.
Knowledge has been expanded to include that which people in previous times didn't know about - new advances in technology, medicine, and other areas of university study. Things we consider commonplace, like computers and penicillin, were definitely not in the stores of knowledge to be found at the universities of Newman's time.Utilitarianism in knowledge is when a person studies and gains knowledge in order to be able to perform a job. This is a vocational school's purpose, not a universities purpose. The university stands for the opposite ideology - that knowledge is its own end.
Pelikan would say to high tech mandarins that they should teach the students all they need to know about technology, but that they should also teach give them a liberal arts grounding and allow them to pursue any form of knowledge that piques their interest. He would tell them to produce graduates with knowledge mainly in technology but also in other fields.
